Strength of a Hero
by Amped
Summary: After seeing Naruto suffer personal attacks at the age of 4, Sandaime Hokage decides to send him out of the village to train. Who with? Why none other than Hatake Kakashi. Future pairing Naruhina. Chap 8 up...after almost a year and a half...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I won't ever own Naruto. This is just for fun. Please don't sue me.

Author's Note: Alright, I got bored of reading them so I decided to write one. Please give me some reviews. Especially ideas for a title, as I can't ever come up with a good one. If you want to contact me, my AIM is AmpedArchetype. It'll say I'm signed off, but usually I'm really not.

Anyway, on to the story!

Note: XXXXXXXXXXXXX scene change

* * *

**_Chapter One: To Leave the Leaf_**

It was a beautiful afternoon in Konoha. However, it wasn't any normal afternoon, it was a festival. Families joyfully walk down the street, talking to people or buying things from merchants. Everyone is in such a good and happy mood. After all, who wouldn't like celebrating the fourth anniversary of the death of the biggest threat to their village in years, the Kyubi.

Sitting all alone on a swing, some distance away from the festivities, is a small, blonde-haired boy. This was no ordinary boy though. Oh no, this is the boy whom the Yondaime Hokage sealed the great demon Kyubi in; Uzumaki Naruto.

He sat there crying by himself. Today was a very hard day for him. He had tried to go to the festival now that Sarutobi-Ojiisan said it was alright. He was overjoyed that he was going to finally get to go to a festival.

Of course, his joy didn't last long. As soon as he had arrived, people glared at him with 'those' eyes. He couldn't understand why they did this. When one particularly dangerous man growled at him for trying to buy some food, Naruto had attempted to back away from the man. In doing so, he walked right into the legs of an older pink haired woman.

"Get out of here you demon!" she screamed, kicking him into the ground.

He tried to get up, only to get kicked in his stomach, doubling him over. One after another, people came to where he was to shout at him and hit him. _Demon!_ And _Monster!_ They shouted. After being kicked for the hundredth time and after being hit with the hundredth rock, a man broke through the crowd and picked up the bloody and beaten Naruto. Naruto had never felt so grateful than when that man picked him up from the ground. It was not to last though, as the man reached into Naruto's pocket and pulled out his wallet, he threw Naruto back to the ground.

"I hope you've learned your lesson today, demon. Stay away from us and our families!" the man sneered.

Naruto could only whimper. He had fled as soon as he saw an opening in the crowd. He ran and didn't stop until he got to the swing, which is where he is now, crying his eyes out. Not only was he beaten up and shunned from the festival, but everyone also ignored the fact that it was his 4th birthday today. The only person that seemed to remember was , Sarutobi-Ojiisan, who gave him an orange jumpsuit and some spending money. Now even those gifts were gone, as his jumpsuit was now torn and covered in blood, and all of his money had been stolen.

For the life of him he couldn't figure out why the village hated him so much. So he did the only thing he knew how.

He cried.

"Naruto-kun" a soft voice said from in front of Naruto. His electric blue eyes rose to see the old man Hokage himself. "Naruto-kun what happened?" Sarutobi said, a little shocked that the boy was covered in blood and his clothes were torn. Of course, no injuries were seen anywhere. Such was the great healing power of the Kyubi.

"They wouldn't let me into the festival, and then they took my money and started beating me." Naruto said between sobs. Sarutobi was disgusted. _How can the village do this to the poor boy. Isnt it enough that he has the damned Kyubi eternally sealed to him? _

"Why are they so mean to me, Ojiisan?" Naruto asked, his blue eyes radiating confusion and pain. "What did I do to them?" His question combined with his tone and face made Sarutobi almost break down and cry right there.

"It's nothing you've done, Naruto-kun. You don't deserve anything they do to you." Naruto hugged him when he said that. "Now come on, how about some ramen? My treat." The Hokage looked down at Naruto, catching a glimpse of pain and hurt in his eyes that disappeared quickly. Naruto gave him a very large grin. "Okay Ojiisan! But it better be good!' Naruto laughed and skipped towards the ramen stand while the Hokage followed. _'He's so young and yet he's already covering up his emotions. Hopefully he'll learn to control his emotions rather than covering them up before it affects his mental health.'_

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX _

After their ramen, the Hokage took Naruto back to his apartment and dropped him off.

"Now Naruto-kun, if you feel any pain anywhere be sure to tell your caretaker immediately." Sarutobi instructed the child.

"Caretaker?" Naruto looked confused. "I don't have a caretaker." He told the Hokage.

_Hmm,_ he thought. "Naruto-kun, what happened to the woman that came here last week?"

At this, Naruto's smile faulted and he looked towards the floor. "She locked me in the closet and told me never to come out. I had to climb through the vents to get out." The Hokage looked very angry. Naruto saw this and started trying to apologize. "I-I I'm sor- sorry Ojiisan. I sh-shouldn't have c-come out of the closet. I-I'll go b-back now." Naruto said, sobbing.

The anger on the Hokage's face changed into a look of sadness. "I'm sorry. I wasn't angry at you. Come on now, let's go to bed." And with that, the Hokage put Naruto into bed and left him, determined to find someone to care for him.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_Heat_, thought the young blonde boy. _What is this heat? It almost feels like I'm on fire._ He felt like he was getting warmer every second. Finally the heat became unbearable.

The boy woke to a scene that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Bound and gagged, Naruto looked around his room. The whole thing was on fire. Orange flames licked everything in sight and were sneaking up to his bed. He screamed as loud as he could, only to hear a muffled whimper come out. Panicking, he tried everything he could to move. He struggled to breathe. The smoke was filling his lungs. He knew that if the fire didn't kill him, the smoke would. He closed his eyes and curled up, hoping this was all a dream. The smoke became too thick to breathe. Just before he lost consciousness, he heard someone shout "JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_What's going on?_ Naruto thought as he regained consciousness. He tried to move but found he couldn't. _I can't even open my eyes._

"_Kakashi," _Naruto heard the Hokage say. _"thank you for saving him and bringing him here."_

"_It wasn't a problem Hokage-sama." _Naruto heard another voice, which he assumed was this new person, Kakashi. _"I'm only sorry I didn't get there sooner to find out who started it."_

"_I guess there's only one thing we can do for him now. We'll have to take him from the village." _ The Hokage remorsefully said.

Finally, Naruto managed to open his eyes. He looked around the sterile white room and saw two figures. One was the Hokage and the other one was a tall, silver haired man with a mask and his forehead protector pulled over one eye. He could only guess that this man was Kakashi.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. It's good to see you awake." The Hokage said cheerfully.

"Ano, Ojiisan? What happened?" Naruto asked, still shaken from the events.

A sad look passed over the Hokage's face. Just as he was about to speak, another voice interrupted. "The villagers tried to kill you, Naruto-kun. They tied you up and set your apartment on fire. I found you, put the fire out, and brought you here, to the hospital." Kakashi said.

"Naruto-kun," the Hokage started, "because of my fear for your safety, you will be taken from the village." Naruto tried to argue, proclaiming that he cant leave or he'll never become Hokage.

"Don't worry about becoming a strong ninja. You will be taken out of the village to train, and will come back to the village when I think it's appropriate. I fear that you will need to be very strong in the future." The Hokage said with a finality ringing in his voice.

"Ano, Ojiisan, who will take me?" Naruto asked.

The Hokage turned to Kakashi. "I was thinking about calling in Jiraiya to come and take him, but I don't think Jiraiya would agree to it. My next choice would be Tsunade, but no one knows where she is. I don't really know who to get to take him." He said.

"Hokage-sama, if it is alright with you, I will take him." Kakashi told him. The Hokage looked taken aback. "Why will I take him? Because I know a little of what it's like." He said. "Also, I feel like I owe it to his father to raise him to be strong." He added in a near-silent whisper only the Hokage could hear.

"Alright then. Naruto-kun, this is Hatake Kakashi. You will spend the next few years training with him outside of our village. He is one of the strongest ninjas in Konoha." The Hokage told him.

"Yo." Kakashi said, a smile apparent from the curve on his one viewable eye.

"Alright!" Naruto shouted. "Now I'll definitely become Hokage!"

"Yes, that's right Naruto-kun. I'll help you become much stronger than this old man. Personally I think he's passed his prime." Kakashi told him while the Hokage was quickly becoming irritated. "Naruto-kun," the Hokage said, "why don't you get some more rest. Kakashi-san and I have some things to talk about before you leave."

Naruto didn't need to be told again. He immediately into a (thankfully) dreamless sleep, happy that someone was finally recognizing him as being worth their time.

Seeing Naruto fall asleep, the Hokage started talking again. "Kakashi, I want you to train him with everything you have. Make him ready for the threats that will come when people find out who his father was. Teach him strategy, history, taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. Leave nothing out. Also," the Hokage reached into his robes and pulled out a mid-sized summoning scroll "when you think he is ready, start giving him these. They are the scrolls his father left him. I believe you know what they do." Kakashi nodded. "Good. Take him away from this village as soon as he wakes up. I will get in touch with you every 3 months to check up on him and give you payment for this mission."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi replied.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

Kakashi left the hospital with blinding speed. He knew he needed to get his things and be back before Naruto awoke. He reached his house, packed quickly, and ran out the door; but not without first grabbing the small orange book that he had purchased from the store the day before.

He made it back just in time. As soon as he opened the door, Naruto woke up.

"Yo, Naruto, we're leaving. From now on, I'm your sensei." Kakashi said through his mask.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, overjoyed someone was being nice to him.

Kakashi walked out the door with Naruto on his heels. They were almost to the gate out of town when a green blur flew by them and stopped right in front of them, revealing a man with thick eyebrows, a big bowl cut, and nothing but green all over. This man, of course, is none other than Konoha's beautiful green beast, Maito Gai.

"Kakashi, my eternal rival, is it true that you are leaving the village?" Gai shouted towards Kakashi.

"Yes Gai, I'm leaving to train the Uzumaki boy. And, no, I don't have time for a challenge. We need to get out of here immediately." Kakashi responded, with a deadly serious voice that broke Gai out of his pose.

"Understood Kakashi. Will you be training him in taijutsu?" Kakashi nodded. "Well then, when you decide that you need me to teach him, because you've reached your limit," at this, Kakashi pulled out his book. "then tell me. I would be glad to give the boy _real_ taijutsu training." Gai laugned.

"Hmm? Did you say something Gai?" Kakashi responded, looking up from the book.

Gai just nodded. "Very well Kakashi, you should be off. I do not want to delay you any more than I already have. Take care my friend. And you," he looked towards Naruto, "listen and do exactly as he says. He knew more about battle when he was fourteen than many of our jounins do today." And with that, Gai vanished.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei, what did he mean when he said 'reached your limit'?" Naruto asked.

"Gai is a taijutsu master. He's better than I am and ever will be at it. He expects you to grow much stronger than me in taijutsu and basically just offered to teach it to you once I'm not suitable to anymore. For Gai to compliment you like that should mean a lot to you." Kakashi responded, a little surprised Naruto had been paying attention to the whole conversation. "Anyway, we need to get going."

And with that, they left.

* * *

Author's Note: Alright! First chapter done! I know it's short, but I just wanted to get it up here. 

Please give me some feedback and someone help me decide on a good title!

My AIM is at the beginning of the chapter.


	2. Chapter 2: Unforgiving Nightmares

Disclaimer: Naruto is copyright Kishimoto Masashi. My name isnt nearly that long nor that complicated, so basically I dont own it.

Author's Note: Thatnks everyone who reviewed! You guys rock.

EDIT: Heh ; fixed the errors

And to the story!

* * *

_**Chapter Two: Unforgiving Nightmares**_

It's been two days since Naruto left the village with Kakashi. So far, Kakashi hasn't taught Naruto anything but Bunshin no Jutsu and basic chakra control. Naruto fared much better than he expected.

"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei! Quick! Come look!" Naruto shouted.

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming." Kakashi said, putting down his book and walking towards where Naruto's voice came from. When Kakashi got there he saw exactly what he was hoping for. There, on the top of a very tall tree with tens of kunai slashes in it, was Naruto. "Good job, Naruto. Now reinforce your legs with chakra and jump down."

"Okay!" Naruto said, focusing his chakra in his legs. "Here I come!" with that said, he jumped down from the tree at an insane speed. Kakashi didn't notice what happened until it was too late.

_Jeez, this kid has too much chakra to control. _Kakashi thought as he walked over to extract an unconscious Naruto from a newly formed crater. _It's going to take a lot of work to get him able to control it all_.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Kakashi-sensei?" the newly awoken Naruto asked, searching the campsite for his teacher.

"I'm right here, Naruto." Said a voice from Naruto's left.

"Ok, what did I do wrong? You said to reinforce my legs with chakra and jump. I did that and that's the last thing I remember." Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Itai! Why does my head hurt!"

"You put way too much chakra into it." Kakashi explained. "You increased the strength of your jump, making yourself shoot straight into the ground. You happened to land right on your head. That's why it hurts so bad."

"Oh, okay." Naruto looked a bit sad that he had made that mistake. "Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

"At least you made it to the top of the tree." Kakashi looked proud. "I don't know many kids your age that can do that."

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei, is there any better way to practice chakra control? I climbed up and down that tree a bunch! It was way too easy!"

"Yes, there are a few other ways. We'll get to them later." Kakashi said as he took out some fruit. "Here, eat this."

"But Kakashi-sensei, I don't want to eat that, I want ramen." Kakashi just stared at the boy unbelievably.

"Do you eat anything other than ramen, Naruto?"

"Nope!" Naruto said cheerfully. "It's the only thing I can afford." He said, a twinge of despair going through his voice.

"Well then, when we get into town you can have some ramen. We're only about a day away. Until then," Kakashi threw three apples to Naruto, "Eat these. They'll make you stronger."

Kakashi wouldn't realize the mistake he had made by saying that until, in the span of five minutes, his whole bagful of apples had been eaten, almost homicidally.

"Yum! You were right Kakashi-sensei! I feel better already!"

"Good, now go to sleep. We're leaving early tomorrow morning, so be ready to get up." With that, Kakashi jumped to a tree and fell back into reading position, book and all.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Naruto, wake up." Kakashi said to the sleeping boy on the ground.

Flashback to the night before

_It had been a rough night for Kakashi. At first everything was fine. Naruto had just gone to sleep and Kakashi had been reading his book. He had just finished a chapter when he was taken back into the real world by Naruto screaming "HELP! GET ME OUT!" Kakashi's first reaction was to go over to the boy and wake him up. It was obvious he was having a nightmare. Kakashi walked up to the boy and put a hand on him to wake him up. As soon as he did, Kakashi flinched. Naruto was burning up. Kakashi formed some seals and created two kage-bunshin. They both went off to get buckets of water while the real Kakashi stayed watching Naruto. A few minutes passed, and Naruto was getting hotter and hotter. His twitching became more erratic and he was shouting for someone to save him. _

_That's when Kakashi realized what was going on. 'He was traumatized by the attack…I should have known this was what's going on. It all makes sense now.'_

_The two kage-bunshin came back with the water. Kakashi soaked some rags in the water and put them on Naruto's head. Soon, Naruto started to cool down and completely stopped his twitching. Kakashi checked his temperature and, fortunately, noticed it was normal. Unfortunately dawn had just broken. It looked like Kakashi didn't get any sleep at all._

End Flashback

"Naruto, this is the last time I'm going to say it. Get up." Kakashi sighed. It looked like there was no other way to do it. "Kage-bunshin." He said. The kage-bunshin quickly ran off with an empty bucket. He came back a moment later with a full one. "Okay, I warned you!" the bunshin threw all the water right onto the sleeping Naruto.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! COLD! COLD! COLD!" Naruto shouted. It wasn't until he stopped running around that he noticed there were two Kakashis. "Sensei, why are there two of you? It's not a regular bunshin, because it's holding a bucket. How'd you do that?" Kakashi smiled. His student was much more observant than he had been lead to believe.

"It's called Kage-bunshin, Naruto. It's a jounin level kinjutsu that creates a real copy of you, not just an image." Naruto was amazed at the clone and walked up to inspect it. He was even further amazed when he poked it and found that it was solid. "And before you ask, yes, I will teach it to you, but not right now. Pack up, we're leaving."

Naruto was overjoyed that he would get to learn such a cool technique. He dashed off to pack up his sleeping bag and catch up to Kakashi. "So we get to go to a town today Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yup. And when we get there I've got a big surprise for you." Kakashi said with a smirk.

"A SURPRISE! OH BOY!" Naruto took off in the direction they were walking.

"Naruto, wait!" Kakashi's words came too late. Naruto was already out of his view. "I was just getting water at this stream. The town's the other way… baka."

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

It was early evening by the time they arrived at a bridge in front of the town.

"Naruto, I have to go take care of some things and see some people. I'll be back in a few hours. Until then, learn to walk on water." Naruto gave Kakashi a confused look. "All you have to do is continuously release the right amount of chakra into the water. That way you'll stand on it just fine." Kakashi sighed. Even after the explanation Naruto still looked confused. "Watch." Kakashi stepped out onto the water.

"Oh! That's what you mean." Naruto said. "Okay Kakashi-sensei, I'll see you later."

As Kakashi walked away, he heard a large splash behind him and just smiled.

Naruto on the other hand was more than a little annoyed at walking on water. No matter what he did, he just couldn't seem to stay up.

_What am I doing wrong. Let's see. Step one, mold chakra at bottom of feet._ He did so and a blue glow appeared from his feet. _Step two, keep it constant_. The glow continued. _Step three, step out on the water. _He stepped out and felt tension on the surface. He got one foot on, but as soon as he lifted the other foot off the ground, he fell face first into the water.

"Damn! Why isn't this working!" He shouted. Just then, a picture flashed into Naruto's mind. It was Kakashi-sensei walking on the water's surface. It looked exactly like it did before, except now, when Naruto focused, he saw something very different. He looked closely at the picture in his mind and was able to see the way Kakashi-sensei's chakra was molded and how it was used. _Oh! I see now. I have to keep pushing chakra out._

Naruto stood up again and gathered chakra at his feet. Crossing his fingers, he slowly stepped out onto the water, remembering to do exactly what Kakashi-sensei had done and constantly push it out. He tried and focused all he could until…

Both feet were on the water. He was doing it.

Naruto remembered the point of doing this though. It was supposed to help his chakra control. He decided that before he would try to walk around on the water, he would try just to stay on top for an hour.

"Hey," Naruto said after his hour was up, "this is really easy!"

_Now all I have left to do is try moving and jumping! _He thought ecstastically. Slowly, he started walking across the water. Feeling that this was really easy, he decided to quicken the pace.

Soon he was at a full-out run. He even tried jumping and altering his chakra output.

It seemed that the hour of concentration had done its work

Naruto spent the whole night having fun with his new chakra trick.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

It was noon the next day before Kakashi came back to the bridge over the water Naruto had been practicing on. Much to his surprise, Naruto was awake and trying a type of chakra control Kakashi was saving until later: climbing a tree using only palms.

"So Naruto, did you figure out how to walk on water?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei, I can probably do it better than you now!" Naruto cheerfully shouted.

"Oh really?" Kakashi grabbed Naruto and threw him off of the bridge and straight towards the water. He was very surprised to see Naruto flip himself in the air, and land on top of the water. The surprise he got from that, however, paled in comparison to what came next.

Using the force applied to the surface tension of the water, Naruto decided to show Kakashi up and jump straight back towards him like a rocket. Just as Naruto was about to fly too high and go over the bridge, he reached out and tapped the bridge with a chakra-molded hand, flipping him onto the bridge like it was nothing.

"Okay, since I think you've gotten the hang of _basic_ chakra control," Naruto frowned at the way he said 'basic', "I think it's time I showed you how you'll be training from now on."

Kakashi pulled out a scroll, cut his thumb, and dragged his blood across the scroll. "Ninpo: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he said. In front of him now were two big boxes.

"Okay Naruto, now I know you're not going to be happy with it at first, but quite frankly I don't care. This is the fastest way to get you the strongest possible. These are" Kakashi opened the first box. "a weighted vest and arm and leg weight holders. Try them on."

Naruto did and surprisingly enough, they fit. "Ano, Kakashi-sensei, I thought you said these were weighted?"

"They will be. That's what this other box is for." Kakashi opened it up. "Okay, this is the last time I will be telling you how much weight you have on. If you want to know after this, count it up yourself. First off, 25 pounds for your vest." Kakashi handed him the flexible weights." Put these in. Second, 15 pounds for each arm." Kakashi handed him 2 more flexible weights. "Put them in too. Lastly, 20 pounds for each of your legs." Kakashi handed them to a _very_ unhappy looking Naruto. "Put them on too. Now, you have 95 pounds of weight on. Does that seem like too much?"

Naruto gave Kakashi a death glare. "I only weigh _75 pounds_ by myself! I'm carrying more than double my weight. How do you expect me to move?"

"Slowly." Was Kakashi's only word. Naruto grunted but complied anyway.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXX_

Two months pass. Naruto and Kakashi are still at the small town.

"Okay Naruto, stop running for a minute and come here." Naruto stopped his laps and came back to where Kakashi was sitting. "You've been training with weights for two months now, right? Now I know you're upset that I keep increasing your weight. Do you think it's helping?" Naruto nodded. "Good. Tell me, how much are you wearing right now?"

"Let's see, 60 pounds in my vest, 25 per arm, and 40 per leg. That's…HOLY CRAP! I'M WEARING 190 POUNDS!" Naruto looked shocked. It certainly hadn't felt like that much to him.

"Yes, you are wearing 190 pounds. Now I know you also don't like how the weights are so obvious. So now I give you an option. When I was getting your weights made, I also got two cloaks made for you. One is black and the other is white. You can wear one of these to cover up all the weights you're wearing."

"So I have to choose which one I want to wear?" Naruto asked before Kakashi could finish.

"No, let me finish, gaki. While these will hide the weights you're wearing now, they themselves are weighted and can have more weights added to them. If I let you wear one of them, I'm putting an extra hundred pounds into them, and you can't complain or ask me to take the cloak back at all. Understood?" Naruto nodded. "Good, now what do you want to do?"

Naruto thought for a moment. _If I take the cloak, it means I'd have to walk around a hundred pounds heavier! But that also means I'll get stronger quiker, and It hides all these damn weights. I really hope this is the right choice._

"Okay Kakashi-sensei, give me the black cloak." Kakashi cracked a smile. He knew Naruto would choose it.

"Good then Naruto. Like you're new cloak?" Naruto, as hard as it was, shrugged. "Good, No give me 20 more laps, 100 more push ups, and then run on top of the river for an hour. Bye."

Naruto just grunted at the daunting and evil task that lay ahead of him.

He could only manage three words, which possessed more truth than he knew at that point; "Slave driving pervert."

* * *

Author's Note: Another chapter done! Yay! Updated fast enough for ya? 

I fixed my little time lapse mistake. The way I had it made it seem like Naruto doubled his weights in no time. I thought it in my head but forgot to put down on paper that he'd been training for 2 months.

So that and some formatting issues are fixed.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and especially to S.P.Q.T (for using the word 'funky' XD) and Yenom (for pointing out my errors and helping me fix them.)

And, believe it or not, Kakashi isnt the main character (sorry). Naruto is, but since he's four, the current POV is more Kakashi's than anyone else's (3rd person, of course). Because Kakashi isn't insanely strong (like one of the Sannin or Akatsuki would be) Naruto will eventually hit a glass ceiling being taught by him.

Heheheh, unless I decide to kill Naruto (I probably wont)

You guys rock!


	3. Chapter 3: Now Starts the Real Training

Disclaimer: All non-original characters/names/plots/chocolate pudding/coconuts belong to Kishimoto Masashi. Not. Me.

Author's Notes: Thanks everyone who reviewed. I'll address some of the individual reviews at the end of the chapter.

And we're back in

3

2

1

* * *

_**Chapter Three: Now Starts the Real Training**_

"Hey, nice to see you up on time." Kakashi said cheerfully. Naruto just scowled at him. It was close to 4 in the morning.

"Why did I have to get up this early Kakashi-sensei?"

"Because, now that you have enough stamina, I'm going to start teaching you ninjutsu." Naruto was overjoyed. "But," Naruto looked a little apprehensive. "you're going to be learning them _very_ fast. One a week in fact. If you fail to learn each one by the required time, you start getting one meal a day." Naruto's face was filled with a mixture of fear and happiness. Happy that the gets to learn one technique a week, but scared that he might get only one meal a day.

"Okay Kakashi-sensei, what do we do first?" Naruto stretched out his legs.

"We'll start off easy. So far all you know is bunshin no jutsu, correct?" Naruto nodded. "Well, the first two things you're going to learn are Henge and Kawarimi no jutsu. With henge, you change into whatever you want. It's effectiveness is equal to the user's chakra control. Watch." Kakashi transformed into Naruto. "See. I have very good control so I look exactly like you. Now," Kakashi changed back. "did you see the seals I used?" Naruto nodded.

_Not only did I see your seals, but I even saw the way you molded it. This'll be easy!_ Naruto thought. "Okay Kakashi-sensei" Naruto interrupted Kakashi. "Watch!" Naruto thought back to the magazines he had seen Kakashi reading. "Henge!"

Kakashi's jaw would have dropped had it not been for the mask. His four year old student had done a perfect henge on his first try.

That, of course, wasn't the only reason his jaw would have dropped. In front of him now was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. One of the most beautiful, but also one of the most naked.

"Naruto!" Kakashi smacked Naruto in the head from behind, disengaging the henge. "Don't ever do that again. It's indecent! If you do it again I'll leave and never teach you another thing." Kakashi would have loved to continue reprimanding his student, but he stopped when he saw the look on his student's face.

"Gomen Kakashi-sensei, I thought it would be funny." Naruto looked sadly at the ground. "I won't do it again, I swear. Just please don't leave." Kakashi saw something drop onto the ground below Naruto's face, moistening it when it hit.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Kakashi patted Naruto on the back. "You've just got to remember that being a ninja means you need to have good judgment. Think of what it would have looked like to a woman if you had done that. All I meant was that you should only use something like that when the situation calls for it."

"Alright Kakashi-sensei. I will." Naruto brightened up some. "Show me the Kawarimi now, please."

"Alright. This kawarimi lets you move at a very fast speed and switch yourself with another object. Come attack me and I'll show you." Naruto ran quickly towards Kakashi and punched him, only to be rewarded with a poof and a very painful feeling in his hand. When the smoke from the 'poof' cleared, he saw his fist buried in a log.

"You're stronger than I thought. I guess those weights have been improving your strength too." Kakashi jumped from the tree he was in. "Do you understand what I just did?" Naruto gave him a thumbs up.

"Yes sir! You used speed and waited until right before you got hit to switch yourself with the log from the tree. You didn't make a seal though, all you did was mold chakra into your legs and in front of you to disguise your movement."

Kakashi didn't understand how he could know all this. "Naruto, can you see my chakra?" Naruto nodded. "How long have you been able to see it?"

"When I was training water walking, I couldn't figure out how you did it. I replayed the scene in my mind like a video and that's when I saw the way your chakra moved. All I have to do is concentrate on it and I can see it." Naruto said casually. Kakashi was flabbergasted. He personally knew both of Naruto's parents. He also knew that neither one of them had any special eye techniques. Kakashi wrote it off as an effect of the only thing he could think of: Kyubi.

"So basically, you only need to see it once or twice because in addition to this wonderful photographic memory you have," Kakashi paused thinking about what he was about to say. "you can also see the chakra flow. That means that you can basically learn anything after seeing it performed a few times." _It's almost exactly like the Sharingan._ Kakashi thought. _The only difference is that while you automatically learn the jutsu with the Sharingan, Naruto only gets to see exactly how to do it. He has to learn it on his own. That still means that he can't do anything very advanced by just seeing it._

"Okay Naruto, watch me very closely." Kakashi formed some seals. "Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu!"

A giant dragon rose out of the water and crashed into an area of trees in front of them, knocking them down completely.

"WHOA! COOL!" Naruto shouted.

Kakashi looked at him. "Now you try." Naruto quickly formed the exact same seals as Kakashi. _Amazing. _Kakashi thought.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu!" Naruto shouted. A mid-sized stream of water shot out of the water and fell straight back in.

_I was right. _Kakashi thought. _He can see exactly what he's supposed to do, but he still has to learn how to get the feel for each technique._ He cast a look at the upset Naruto. "Don't worry about it Naruto. That's at least a chuunin level skill. For you to have even done that much is very impressive. Okay, because you learn so fast, I'm going to make you learn _2 per week_ now. Same rules as before; if you don't learn them by then you only get one meal per day."

"Okay Kakashi-sensei, I already know the two you gave me for this week. Can I start something else?" Kakashi thought for a moment. "But Naruto, you still haven't done the kawarimi yet." Kakashi kicked the stump from before right at Naruto. Kakashi saw a poof and then saw that his log had hit something small and orange. He quickly jumped forward right as Naruto threw a kick where his head had been.

"Good job on using the kawarimi, Naruto. Now," Kakashi looked at the remnants of his Icha Icha Paradise Naruto had switched with. "for ruining my book, give me 50 laps around the training area." Naruto looked shocked. "But first," Kakashi said with a voice that would have made the devil nervous, "here's 60 more pounds to wear." An audible groan came from Naruto. "Once you're done, I'll teach you two elemental jutsu's, so hurry up."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Six months have passed. Naruto and Kakashi are still right outside the small town.

"Okay Naruto, stop." Kakashi ended the sparring match he was having.

"But Kakashi-sensei! I almost hit you this time!" Naruto whined. He had been learning taijutsu from Kakashi and they had begun sparring earlier that month.

"Whatever. Anyway, pack up. Today we're leaving. You know all the basics that a ninja needs to know; you're very good at ninjutsu, proficient in taijutsu, your genjutsu… well your genjutsu sucks" Naruto glared at him. "but I'm not very good at teaching it, so it's okay. Even your strategies and weapon use are good. You're lacking one thing every ninja needs to know though." Naruto listened to him intently on what it was. "History."

"Nani? History? What does that mean?" Naruto asked, wondering what Kakashi meant.

"It means," Kakashi said as he pulled out a thick textbook, "you're going to school." Naruto backed away when Kakashi said that.

"B-but th-that mean I-I have t-t-to go back to K-K-Konoha! P-Please Kakashi-sensei," Naruto ran up to him and hugged him tight on the legs. "P-please don't make me go back!" Naruto cried.

_I guess he still remembers everything that happened._ "No, no, don't worry Naruto. We're not going back there for at least a year or two. We're going to another village instead. Have you heard of Sunagakure?" Naruto nodded. Of course he had. Even if he hadn't been to school, Kakashi still had been teaching him things other than training. "We'll be going to Sunagakure where you can enroll in the academy there. Any questions?" Naruto shook his head. "Good, then get ready to go. We're leaving in an hour."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

One hour later

_Where is he?_ Naruto thought as he waited in the middle of the campsite.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Two more hours later

"Yo." Kakashi said, walking up to Naruto with a large sack behind him.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're late! I was starting to think you forgot about me!" Kakashi smiled and pulled the large sack out that he'd been carrying.

"I thought you wouldn't mind waiting when you saw what I got for you." Kakashi opened up the bag. It was filled to the brim with ramen. "They don't have ramen in Sunagakure, so I figured I'd get you some."

"YEAH! RAMEN! Okay Kakashi-sensei, let's go!"

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

5 days later, at the outskirts of Sunagakure

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing?" Naruto asked Kakashi. Kakashi was tying a message to a hawk.

"I'm sending a letter, Naruto."

"Ano… Kakashi-sensei, what's the letter for?"

"It's to ask the Kazekage for permission to enter Sunagakure."

"Why do we have to do that?"

Kakashi's face visibly darkened. "Because there are some people in this village who knew of my father, and I do not wish to be attacked because of who he is."

Naruto looked unhappy about unwittingly hurting Kakashi.

"Any more questions, Naruto?" Naruto just shook his head. "Good. We should know by nightfall if we can enter or not. From now on, don't use any jutsu other than bunshin, henge, kawarimi, and you're fuuton attacks. I suspect you'll get to learn quite a few of Suna's native skills here. The same goes for other villages unless I tell you otherwise. Only use skills native to that area. Got it?"

"Yes Kakashi-sensei. What do I train in then?"

"For the next six month's we're here, you will be training in taijutsu and whatever the Suna-nin are willing to teach you. Your 'two jutsu per week' rule is no longer in effect." _Even though it wasn't really necessary. Damn, this kid learns fast._ Kakashi looked at cloaked Naruto. "I also think that for the duration of our stay, you should wear the white cloak instead of the black one. It's gets really hot around here."

Naruto swapped out his black cloak for a white one.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you train me in taijutsu right now?" Kakashi thought about it for a minute.

"Okay, but don't use any ninjutsu at all, and don't take off any of your weights."

"Yes Kakashi-sensei." Naruto got into a ready stance.

Kakashi also got into a ready stance. Even though the boy was only 4 and a half years old and his taijutsu wasn't anything special, his speed combined with his strength still made it a little bit dangerous if Kakashi wasn't careful. The speed and strength weren't the only thing that could put Kakashi on edge though; the boy was completely random and unpredictable in his attacks. To Naruto, this was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing in that his opponent couldn't read any of his attack patterns. It was a curse because neither could he, and half the time he couldn't even execute a second attack after his first. He was so unpredictable he couldn't predict what he was going to do himself. Kakashi decided that if Naruto could gather his mind up during combat, even with his current size and age, he could be a fairly good taijutsu fighter.

Of course, that's a big 'if'.

Naruto quickly ran up to Kakashi and kicked his right leg towards Kakashi's face. Kakashi quickly blocked it and grabbed onto Naruto's leg, planning on throwing him away. Naruto, sensing what was about to happen, twisted his body around and brought his left leg towards Kakashi's chest. Kakashi grabbed Naruto's other leg and threw him a good forty feet away from him.

Hand springing back onto his feet, Naruto waited. This was how they fought. One would go on the offensive while the other one blocked. As soon as one backs away (or is thrown away, as in Naruto's case) they go on the defensive.

Kakashi jumped straight up into the setting sun, letting the bright star hide his position. Naruto stayed still in the middle, trying to look in the direction Kakashi leapt to.

It was then that he heard the sound of metal cutting through the air and the words "Kage shuriken no jutsu!"

_Shit!_ Naruto thought as he heard the number of shuriken increase exponentially. He quickly jumped away from the spot he had been standing at, only to see it turn into a pin-cushion. That wasn't the end of Kakashi's shuriken though. Two smaller waves came directly at Naruto. He pulled out a kunai and blocked the first wave. He ducked under the second wave and in a whirl of a motion managed to grab twenty of the shuriken thrown at him. Quickly thinking, he threw eighteen of them and his kunai back in the direction they came from and pocketed the other two.

"Bad move, Naruto." Kakashi's creepy voice came from a tree behind Naruto. "Throwing your only weapon, tsk tsk. I thought I taught you better."

"Gotcha!" Naruto yelled, turning around and throwing the shuriken straight at Kakashi.

Not to be outclassed by a 4 year old, Kakashi quickly caught the shuriken. _Bad move Kakashi!_ Thought Kakashi when he realized what Naruto was planning.

Kakashi dropped the Shuriken and jumped away so he could avoid the blast of the explosive notes the boy had sneakily placed on the shuriken. It wasn't until then that he realized the true extent of the boy's planning. Kakashi made a mid-air twist to avoid the kicked Naruto had aimed at him. He had avoided the kick, but Naruto punched with it so fast that Kakashi, disoriented from the sequence of attack from the young boy, barely blocked. The force of the block took him straight to the ground while Naruto kept going up.

"You did some good planning Naruto, but it's over now." Kakashi jumped up and delivered a strong kick to Naruto's midsection, flinging him into a tree.

Most onlookers, if there had been any, would have been horrified to see a young man knock a child into a tree with such force. Kakashi wasn't worried however. He had seen how quickly and well the Kyubi could heal Naruto. When Naruto asked why he could heal so fast. Kakashi, like any older 'relative' told him that he was special.

Just because he was 'special' did not mean that he couldn't go unconscious at times when he experienced extreme head trauma.

This was one of those times.

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

About an hour later, Outskirts of Sunagakure

_Mmmmm…that smell. I love that smell. That smell can only be one thing…_

"RAMEN!" Naruto yelled as he woke up.

"Ah, good to see you're awake, Naruto." He looked around and say Kakashi sitting by a campfire.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei, I lost, right?" Kakashi nodded. "Then why are we having ramen?"

"Because," Kakashi said as he poured Naruto a bowl. "you did excellent in our match today. Your planning was excellent. Your attacks were fair. Even your defense kept you protected until the end of the match. The way you let me see you put the two shuriken in your pocket honestly made me believe that you had done it on accident. Once you had caught me off guard with the explosive tags, you kept me off guard with that kick. If I had realized it a split-second later, you probably would have hit me. I think that calls for ramen."

"Alright!" Naruto had never received so much praise. He was overjoyed.

The two sat in silence for about an hour eating their ramen. Darkness was pushing the final bit of the sun from the sky and the stars were becoming more and more apparent.

Naruto plopped down on his back, staring up at night sky.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi replied. He too was on his back.

"Who were my parents?"

This was one of the questions Kakashi had been fearing since he took the boy in. He didn't want to lie to Naruto, but there was no way in hell he was going to tell him that his father was the Yondaime Hokage. He carefully thought and formulated his response.

"Your mother was a wonderful woman. She was a ninja from a small village on an island south of the fire country. She came to Konoha as a medical ninja when she was very young and assisted in running the hospitals." _Well, it's mostly true_. Kakashi thought.

Naruto was hanging on every word Kakashi said.

"Your father… well your father was a great hero of Konoha. He personally saved my life on many occasions. He did many great things for the village to help it prosper." _Again, mostly true. Just a few important details left out._

"It sounds like they were great people…" Naruto eyes grew a little sad.

"Yes, there were wonderful people." Kakashi agreed.

"If that's true," Naruto turned to look at him sadly. Kakashi knew what was coming next and prayed that he was wrong. "why do people hate me so much?"

This was the other question Kakashi had been fearing. He couldn't outright tell the boy he was the container for the demon lord Kyubi. Then again, the old 'it's because you're special' routine wasn't going to work for this one. How was he supposed to answer it.

Thankfully for Kakashi, it was at this moment that a messenger hawk flew down.

Kakashi released his held breath and took the note off of the bird's leg.

"Pack up Naruto. The Kazekage has granted us permission to enter the Suna. He has also asked to meet with us." Naruto started picking up his things to leave.

"Tomorrow," Kakashi said, "you will officially be a temporary Sunagakure academy student."

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Author's notes: Yay! Another chapter finished!

Allin656: Nope, Naruto's mother isnt a Hyuuga. That could mess up a future pairing .

Jey: you'll see what I've got planned.

Spellcaster Hikaru: He'll definately meet up with them. But not any time soon.

The Gandhara: It seems like Naruto is progressing fast, but I'll expand more on the reason in chapters soon to come. You wont mind, trust me.

Thanks to everyone else who reviewed!

As always, if anyone wants to get in touch with me, email me at or AIM me at AmpedArchetype.

Note: Some of you pointed out that in this chapter he seems way too strong for a four year old, but the way I see it is this: Right now he's about genin-level. He almost hit Kakashi, just like Sasuke almost got the bells.

Keep in mind, the match was just taijutsu and no ninjutsu. Kakashi would have pwnd him if he had used any.


	4. Chapter 4: A New Village

_Author's Note: This is the full chapter 4. Sorry for taking so long._

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**_Chapter Four: A New Village_**

At the Sunagakure gates

"Naruto, from now on I'll be using a henge to change my appearance." Kakashi changed into an older, brown-haired man with no hitai-ate. "Also, just call me sensei. I'd rather no one here know who I am." Kakashi looked sadly at the chakra fang he had strapped to his waist. It had been the very same fang his father had used to gain the title of 'Konoha's White Fang' in the war against Suna many years earlier. Kakashi took the fang off and put it at the very bottom of his pack.

"Kak- I mean sensei, should I use henge too?" Kakashi shook his head.

"No. You don't need too. Anyway, let's go see the Kazekage."

The two walked through the sandy streets toward the Kazekage's tower. No one shot them a single glance. It looked as though Kakashi's disguise was working.

"Ah, Kakashi-san, " Naruto looked around to find where the voice had come from. He then saw who had said the words. The man was about medium height wearing white robes and a tri-point hat emblazoned with blue and the word 'wind' on it.

This man, of course, was the Kazekage.

"It's good to see you, Kazekage-sama." Kakashi wasn't phased at how the Kazekage had seen through his disguise. He was, of course, the most powerful ninja in Sunagakure.

"So," the Kazekage looked Naruto over. "this is the boy you've brought to train in the academy for how long?"

"About a year and a half, Kazekage-sama, then we go back. I was also hoping to find a good teacher of advanced chakra control for him." Kakashi said.

"That can be arranged Kakashi-san." Kakashi nodded a thanks. "I have yet to arrange you living conditions though. Would you like an apartment or a hotel room?"

"An apartment, please. Preferably one near an open area." The Kazekage wrote something down on a scroll and sent the scroll off on a bird.

"It is no problem Kakashi-san." The Kazekage said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work. I'll send a chuunin along in the next hour or so to show you to your room. Have a good day, Naruto, Kakashi-san." The Kazekage vanished in a puff of smoke.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXX_

Naruto and Kakashi wondered around Sunagakure, scouting out all the necessary stores. Kakashi couldn't help but notice Naruto hadn't said a word since they left the Kazekage. He looked at Naruto and saw something that shocked him; Naruto was deep in thought.

_Good._ Kakashi thought. _I wonder what he's thinking about, though._ Kakashi was just going to let Naruto keep thinking to himself, but when they passed a ramen stand and Naruto didn't even glance at it, Kakashi knew he needed to know what he was thinking.

"Naruto." Kakashi said softly. Naruto didn't say anything. "Naruto!" Kakashi said, much sterner this time. Naruto glanced up at Kakashi with a grin.

"Yes sensei?"

"What are you thinking about?" Naruto looked back down.

"You said that we're only going to be here for a year and a half and then we'd go back. You didn't mean back to Konoha, did you?" Kakashi didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected Naruto to be paying that much attention to his and the Kazekage's conversation.

He decided he might as well tell the truth. "I honestly don't know where we'll go after we're done here, Naruto. I only said 'back' so that the Kazekage won't ask any questions. He doesn't know that you had to be taken out of the village."

"Oh. Okay." Naruto still looked like he was deep in thought. "You also said something about me learning chakra control. I thought I had already learned chakra control."

"Yes, you already learned _basic_ chakra control. The kind you will learn here is much more advanced. You will need to have near-perfect control for what I'm planning on training you."

Naruto looked up at Kakashi with an amazed face. "Really? What are you going to teach me!"

Kakashi chuckled in amusement. "You'll find out once you're done with the advanced control training. I promise it'll be worth the wait."

"Okay!" Naruto then noticed what they had passed. "Sensei! Can we get ramen?"

_That's better._ Kakashi smirked. "Sure. But afterwards you have to run three times around all of Suna."

"Okay, but let's go now!"

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

"This is your new apartment, sir." The young chuunin escorted Kakashi and Naruto up to a _very_ nice and large apartment complex. "This is a new establishment, and as far as I know only one other apartment is currently occupied. That room" he pointed about 35 yards away from where they were standing, "is being used by Kazekage-sama's daughter, his eldest son, and their caretaker."

Naruto was curious "Ano, sir? How old are they?"

"Kankurou is five and Temari just turned six." The chuunin responded. "They are both in their first year at the academy."

"Which means they'll be in the same class as you, Naruto." Kakashi answered Naruto's question before he could ask it. "Thank you. That will be all."

The chuunin handed Kakashi the keys and walked away. Naruto and Kakashi entered their new apartment. When they saw the inside they could only say one thing.

"IT'S HUGE!" Naruto shouted. Kakashi could only nod. They had certainly been given one of the nicest apartments in Suna. The bottom floor alone looked like it was four or five times bigger than Naruto's old apartment. All along the walls there were statues or decorative vases. Paintings were hung all over the wall. The kitchen had every appliance known to man. The bottom floor mainly comprised of the kitchen, a central room, one bedroom, a library, an entryway, and a small parlor. In the central room there was a large set of stairs leading up to the second floor. The second floor wasn't decorated as elaborately as the first. There were statues, but they were much fewer in number and there were no vases at all. This floor looked to be more practical than the other. There were 2 bedrooms, a workout room, a bathroom, a large balcony and a set of stairs. One of the bedrooms was connected to the roof of the first floor outside. The roof stretched all the way to where the Kazekage's family was. The stairs led up to the roof, where Kakashi and Naruto noticed that right behind them was a very large, open field of sand. It was the perfect training area.

They decided to both sleep upstairs. Naruto would get the bedroom with the balcony and Kakashi would get the other one.

"Naruto," Naruto heard Kakashi's voice from across the hall. "unpack later. We're going to go find someone who can teach you chakra control."

Naruto quickly hurried out the door and met up with Kakashi.

"Follow me." Naruto did.

After walking for about ten minutes, Kakashi finally spoke up. "Ah, here we are."

They arrived at a medium-sized house. Kakashi knocked at the door. "Chiyo-sama? Chiyo-sama, are you home?"

An older lady opened the door with a dish and a rag in her hand. "Who asks? Oh!" she dropped the dish. "Konoha's White Fang!"

"Shh!" Kakashi tried to quiet her down, though he was still annoyed that now two people had seen through his henge. "Please, Chiyo-sama. May we come in?"

Chiyo could only open the door dumbfounded. She had heard that years ago, Konoha's White Fang had taken his own life. Yet now, right before her, although in henge, stood the spitting image of the man once she saw through the disguise.

Once Naruto and Kakashi had gone in and Chiyo had closed the door, Kakashi took off his henge.

Kakashi then decided to set things right. "Chiyo-sama, I am not the White Fang. That was my father. I am Hatake Kakashi."

"Okay. What can I do for you then, Kakashi-san?"

"If it's not too much trouble, I'd like you to train this boy in advanced chakra control. I want him to learn from the best." Kakashi smiled at Naruto.

"The flattery is not necessary, Kakashi-san." Truth be told, she really appreciated and liked the flattery, but she was in no mood to let someone think she had been bribed into doing something by flattery. "I will be glad to teach this boy. It has been a long time since I taught anyone though. My last student didn't…turn out too well."

_XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
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"This," Naruto panted, "is…really…hard!"

At first the day had started out nice. Kakashi had taken him to meet Chiyo-baa, his new teacher. The first thing she had him do was walk on water. Of course, he already knew how to do it, so he showed off. This proved to be a very bad idea, because then Chiyo decided to make him walk on water while carrying burlap sacks filled with sand. He had to make it back and forth across the hot springs one-hundred times while carrying the bags, wet or not. This also meant that he could fall in as many times as he wanted. If he fell in though, the water would be absorbed and make the bags much much heavier.

As it was, he had made it across about five times and fallen in about fifty.

"Chiyo-sensei!" Naruto stopped, regaining his balance on the water. His white cloak was soaking wet and clung to his arms. "My cloak is annoying me! Can I put the bags down to take it off?"

Chiyo thought for a moment. "Naruto, you are annoying me. Take off your cloak without letting go of the bags or just forget about it. If you let go of those bags, I'll stop teaching you." Chiyo then walked away, but only after shooting a _very_ serious glare at Naruto.

"Old bat! You haven't taught me anything so far!" Nonetheless, Naruto did as she said and forgot about his cloak.

He slowly started walking from his position on the lake. The bottom of his feet sunk just a little bit into the water. Step after step though, they seemed to start to stay on top. Soon, every step Naruto took was on the exact surface of the water.

The next twenty lengths took a little over an hour to complete. Falling in only about twenty times, he was slowly getting better as time passed. When lucky length number fifty came up, he had gone five lengths without stopping or falling in once.

By the time he had finished his hundredth length, the stars were in clear view and the sun was completely gone. Chiyo had come to get him, half expecting him to come running up to her to complain about not being able to finish his lengths. She didn't expect to see him laying down on top of the water sleeping, with a note written in the sand that said "100". A smile crept to her old face.

She effortlessly walked out onto the water, picked him up, and took him back to his apartment.

He had certainly impressed her.

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

Kakashi heard a knock at his apartment door. Quickly, he rushed to it. It wasn't so much that he was worried about Naruto; after all, Naruto did have one of the strongest ninja's in the sand teaching him advanced, extremely tiring, and what could be potentially dangerous or threatening chakra exercises.

Okay, so he was worried about Naruto.

He opened the door, expecting to see an annoyed looking Naruto. Instead, he saw Chiyo holding a fast-asleep Naruto in her arms.

"Chiyo-sama, what happened?" Chiyo handed Naruto to Kakashi.

"He completed the exercise I told him to do. I didn't really expect him to be able to do it, but he finished the whole thing in just eleven hours." Kakashi didn't know what the exercise had been, but he assumed it must have been really tiring to make Naruto fall asleep.

"Chiyo-sama, how long has he been asleep? Usually it only takes him a few hours to recover."

"Only about an hour. Now," Chiyo handed Kakashi a small blue pill. "when he wakes up, immediately give him this then have him eat. I'll be leaving now." With that, she walked out of Kakashi's sight.

"Hmm…" Kakashi studied the pill. _This is a calming pill. She's trying to soothe his violent chakra and make it easier to control… Does that mean she knows about the Kyubi?_

Kakashi took Naruto inside and laid him on one of the beds upstairs. Tomorrow Naruto would have to get up and go to his first day in the academy. _Training at night, school during the day. I almost feel sorry for him. _

Kakashi laid down in his bed and promptly fell asleep, mask and all.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

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_A/N: K, I finished this chapter. Chapter 5 already has 2800 words, and it's not near completion._

_Sorry for taking so long, but I was really tired after Boston. _

_To everyone that says Naruto is too strong: His strength isnt incredible. He couldnt actually beat Kakashi in a fight at all. Not even pure Taijutsu. That was just training. Think of how strong someone could be if they did nothing but train intensively for 6 months, starting at a young age. And also considering Kyubi, it shouldnt be any surprise that Naruto grows faster that most people._

_To anyone that wonders why Chiyo and the Kazekage are being so nice, it's because that Konoha is still the strongest village, and Suna and Konoha are allies. That and Kakashi is one of the most well known ninja from Konoha. Those, at least, are the Kazekage's reasons._

_Chiyo's reasons will be explained next chapter. Or maybe in two chapters... Not sure._

_No matter how it may look in the next chapter or two, this will definately be NaruHina. Not for a while, but it will be. Might be slight hints at NaruTemari, but nothing substantial._

_And I'm against NaruOC, so stop asking... _

_ Alright, bye._


	5. Chapter 5: The Sand

_Author's Notes: Hm, yup, as promised, over 5000 words. Also, lots of things are explained in this chapter. _

_Read on!_

_Disclaimer: Naruto and all of it's characters ('cept mine) are property of Kishimoto Masashi, not me.  
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_**Chapter Five: The Sand**_

_(Kakashi and Naruto's apartment, 6:00 A.M.)_

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu" Kakashi threw dropped the scroll as a large gong appeared in front of him. He decided if Naruto wouldn't wake up when his alarm went off, Kakashi would make him a new one.

"Naruto, last warning, get up." No response. "Fine." Kakashi struck the gong hard.

Naruto stirred. He opened one bleary eye, as if unfazed by the loud sound of the gong, he groggily asked Kakashi "Kakashi-sensei? What do you need?"

Kakashi almost laughed his head off at the boy's antics. "It's time to get up. You start at the academy today, remember?" Naruto nodded sleepily. "Good. Then get up and come eat breakfast."

Naruto got dressed and went downstairs to get breakfast. Kakashi was there, reading his little orange book (which he bought with Naruto's money as payback for ruining his first one) with a pot of ramen on the stove. Next to Kakashi a small pile of books lie on the ground.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei," Kakashi looked up from his book "when do I have to be at the academy?"

"Eight O'clock, Naruto. Now eat some ramen and take this pill." Kakashi threw him the calming pill. "Chiyo-sama instructed me to get you to take that with you're breakfast this morning."

Naruto slowly ate his breakfast and took the pill. He looked at the clock and saw that it read 7:15. "Isn't it time to leave yet, Kakashi-sensei?"

Throughout the whole morning, Kakashi hadn't moved. The only thing he'd done that made anyone certain he wasn't sleeping was that he would occasionally turn a page of his book. He had never noticed the time.

"Yeah, I think it's time you got going. You should probably have time to meet some of your classmates beforehand, too."

Kakashi grabbed the books off the floor, put them in a small pack, handed them to Naruto, gave him a map of Sunagakure with their location and the location of the academy penciled in, pushed him out the door, and told him to have a good day at school.

Naruto stood outside the door dumbfounded. Did his sensei actually just _push _him out of the house? He carefully studied the "map" Kakashi gave him. _What kind of map is this! It's just a sheet of paper with the academy and the apartment on it and a few line-like streets! How the heck do I get there without any street names!_

It was about at this time that he noticed the slightly older girl looking at him from outside a different apartment door about a hundred feet away. She was about six and had an odd style in her sand-blonde hair. Naruto remembered the Chuunin saying something about other academy students living in the complex.

She walked up to him in curiosity. She had never seen someone with such bright blonde hair. He couldn't be from Suna.

"Hi!" she said to him. "My name's Temari, what's yours?"

Naruto looked a little shocked. No one had ever willingly walked up to him and made conversation, much less asked his name.

"My name's Naruto." He was studying the girl closely, making sure she wasn't going to try and hurt him.

"Well Naruto," she started to speak and Naruto's worries seemed to melt away with her voice "are you an academy student? Is today you're first day?"

He nodded to her. "Yes it is, but I can't figure out how to get to the academy." She snatched the map from his hands.

Temari looked at the map and crumpled it up. "I'm a student there too. You can come with me!"

"Thanks Temari-san!" Temari looked oddly at the younger boy.

"Temari is fine, Naruto. After all, we're friends, right?"

Naruto thought this was a dream come true. He hadn't even been on his own for five minutes and he had already made a friend and was going to get to the academy on time.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"So, Naruto, are you from Suna?" Temari asked Naruto as they walked towards the academy. Since she had first seen Naruto's hair, she had wondered about where he was from. If that hadn't made her curious, the sheer depth of his blue eyes captivated her as well.

"No. I'm from Konohagakure no Sato. My sensei took me out to train around the world." Naruto didn't like keeping the truth from his new friend, but he trusted Kakashi much more than anyone in the world, perhaps even more than Sandaime Hokage himself.

"Well that's cool. Um, I've never been out of Suna but my dad said it's really pretty out there." Naruto just nodded. He didn't really want to think about Konoha.

"Temari, who's you're dad?" The question came as a small shock to Temari; everyone in the village knew she was the Kazekage's daughter. Then she remembered that Naruto wasn't from the village.

"He's the Kazekage." She had expected Naruto's jaw to drop, or there to be at least some kind of excitement. Heck, she had people serve her because of her position before. It seemed like whenever she met anyone they treated her differently. She had suspected no less of Naruto when she told him, but had hoped he wouldn't start sucking up to her. She hated how she was treated just because she was the daughter of the Kazekage.

_Oh!_ A light lit up in Naruto's head. _That's right. That chuunin said that the Kazekage's kids lived next to us._ "That's pretty cool Temari." Temari's fears drained away; Naruto's expression didn't change much, nor did his tone. It seemed like he didn't really care. "Don't you have a brother, too?" Temari thought for a second. Her father had told her not to tell _anyone_ about Gaara. She knew Naruto could only mean Kankurou, but none the less she still paused before she answered.

"Yup. I do. His name's Kakurou and he's stupid." Naruto laughed "You'll meet him at the academy. If he gives you a hard time just tell me and I'll beat him up!" Naruto laughed even harder.

They walked and talked for a little bit longer, each talking about their likes (which consisted of a very long ramen description from Naruto), dislikes (which evoked a long rant from Temari about Kankurou), hobbies, and dreams. Soon they arrived at the academy.

"Okay Naruto-kun, we're hear." Naruto looked inquisitively at the girl from the sudden addition of '-kun' to his name. It wasn't that he disliked it, it was more that no one other than Kakashi or Sarutobi-ojiisan had ever called him it.

"Thanks Temari." Temari frowned a little bit; she had expected him to call her 'Temari-chan'. It didn't bother her that much though, because one look into his eyes and she knew that it wasn't because he felt uneasy at calling the kazekage's daughter 'chan', it was something else.

"Um, our classroom's this way." She motioned in the direction she was about to walk. "Come on."

"Actually, I'm supposed to go find the teacher first. Do you know where he is?"

Temari pointed at a door. "That's his office." She looked over to a large crowd of kids walking towards her. "I've got to go now, Naruto-kun. My friends are probably going to want to talk. See you in class." Temari turned around and walked toward the classroom as a mass of students started surrounding her. Naruto thought that she must be really popular.

He turned and walked into the teacher's office.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

"Good morning, class." The academy teacher said. "I'm Inori-sensei, for those of you who might have forgotten." He spoke with a smile consistently. It was like he was a jovial person. "Today we have someone new in our class. He isn't from this village, but he has moved into Sunagakure for the time being and will be attending class from now on. His name is" he motioned for Naruto to come in "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Nice to meet you, everybody." Naruto responded politely.

"Inori-sensei!" A loud voice came from the student body. "How can a shrimp like him be in the academy already! He's gotta be too young!"

"Be nice Kankurou. After all, you're a year younger than everyone else in here." Inori reprimanded Kankurou very even tempered.

"Now then Naruto," Naruto looked up "why don't you go find a seat?"

Naruto looked around to find Temari. He found her but was disappointed when there were no empty seats around her. In fact, it seemed like the only empty seat was next to that Kankurou guy. _Wait a minute, isn't Kankurou the name of Temari's brother?_

Without any other choice, Naruto sat next to Kankurou. For the rest of the day, he would learn about the basics of chakra manipulation (which seemed extremely stupid to him, considering he already knew much more advanced manipulation) and ninja history, which was just boring. Once he had gotten through all the bickering with Kankurou, who was a year his senior, he found that Kankurou also thought the chakra manipulation was too easy. They talked about what they knew and started forming what can even be called a friendship, although they seemed to be bragging to each other more than anything.

Naruto felt wonderful. He had never been able to be a kid. Back in _that village_ no one had ever treated him like a normal kid, and even the kids stayed away from him. Here though, people treated him nice and he even made a little rival in Kankurou. It was the happiest time of his life, even happier than when he first successfully completed the first elemental technique Kakashi had taught him: Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu. The stay in Suna was going to be a wonderful one.

_XXXXXXXXX_

Once school had finished, Naruto waved goodbye to everyone and started walking back the way he had come with Temari earlier that morning. He felt a little lonely thinking about walking back by himself, but Kankurou got detention and Temari _still_ had a crowd of people swarmed around her. He wished someone would walk back with him.

"Naruto-kun!" And there she was. Only one girl called him that. "How'd you like your first day at the academy? Sorry that you couldn't sit next to me and had to sit next to my stupid brother."

"It was great Temari! You're brother's not really that bad though. He was really good at chakra manipulation. Even so, he was a bit weird."

Temari snickered. "Yeah, he's got way better control than I've got."

"I tried to find you at lunch to talk to you, but I didn't see you anywhere. Kankurou ended up showing me this really cool game called shougi." Naruto laughed. "He's not any good at it though."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'm kinda popular so people don't really leave me alone." Temari said it like it was a bad thing. "Ooh, so he showed you shougi? I'm really good at it. We can play at my house later on today? Don't feel too bad if I beat you though, I'm really good."

"I'll ask my sensei if I can. Thanks Temari!" Naruto and Temari walked back to their complex, talking the whole time and even stopping to get dango, which Naruto had never had before. Finally they arrived home.

"Naruto-kun, call later if you can come over. Our number is in the apartment listing. Bye!" Temari waved goodbye.

"Bye Temari!" Naruto waved back.

He opened the door to his apartment, happy and ready to tell Kakashi about his experiences in the academy. However, when he got to the kitchen he was disappointed. On the counter was a note from Kakashi.

_Naruto:_

_Glad you're back from the academy. Hope you had a good day. I'm writing a report to Hokage-sama and then I have a meeting with Kazekage-sama and possibly a mission. I hope you don't mind, I wont be home until two days from now. Do whatever you want tonight, but at five o'clock today you need to go to Chiyo-sama's house for more instruction. Tomorrow, same routine, except you're due at Chiyo-sama's at five-thirty._

_Have a good time,_

_Sensei_

_P.S. Ramen is in the pantry. Leave me some._

_P.P.S. Check to make sure the milk hasn't gone bad before you drink it._

Naruto just stared at the note. They'd been there two days and Kakashi had already disappeared.

_Great!_ He thought about his situation. _Now I can go over to Temari's and play shougi!_

Quickly he grabbed the apartment listing and got the only other number on it. He called it and an older sounding woman picked up.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end said.

"Hi, may I please speak to Temari?" Naruto asked politely.

"Sure. One moment please." Naruto could hear shuffling on the other end. "Hello?"

"Temari? This is Naruto. I can come over, but it'll probably be a little later. Probably around eight. Is that alright?"

"Naruto-kun! Sure, that's okay. See you when you come!"

Naruto hung up the phone and then went upstairs to find Kakashi's bag. _He said he didn't care what I did, and I want to get stronger. I'll just add some weights._

He took off his white cloak, exposing the bulging clothes underneath them. It didn't look like any more weights would fit in them. After spending about thirty minutes trying to (unsuccessfully) cram more weight into his clothes, he realized he was running out of time. He was supposed to be at Chiyo-sama's in fifteen minutes!

Naruto threw his cloak back on and ran out the door.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

Out of breath, Naruto arrived at Chiyo's house with only one minute to spare.

"Glad you made it, Naruto." He looked up to see Chiyo standing in front of him with a kunai. "Yesterday I got to see you're stamina, and I have to say I was impressed." Naruto felt pride in his teacher's words. "Today though, I want to see how much control over you're chakra system you have." She threw the kunai into a tree and quickly grabbed all the leaves that fell down. "The way we'll do that is the same method used to gain concentration back in Konoha. The only difference is that where they do it for concentration, I do it for control. Watch."

She put one of the leaves on her forehead. Naruto sat there, looking at her like she was crazy. He had no idea what she was doing. Then, as if some unseen force had done it, the leaf blew straight up and off of her head.

vcsam

"Ano, Chiyo-sensei, was that chakra?" Naruto closed his eyes and watched the replay in his head. Sure enough, he saw a blue energy shoot from her forehead and into the leaf.

"Yes it was. I'll demonstrate one more time and show you." She put the leaf back on her forehead and blew it off again. "This is just the first step of this exercise though. Once you've completely mastered how to do this, we'll go on to the next step. Work on it for at least two hours then come to me and show me. If you've made significant progress, I'll let you go home."

"Yes Chiyo-sensei. Thank you." Chiyo left Naruto standing in her backyard, next to the lone tree. _That's weird; it looks like she has the only tree in Suna._

Naruto picked up one of the leaves Chiyo had left. He placed it on his forehead and then thought back to what Chiyo had done.

_It looks like all she did was concentrate chakra into her forehead and then release it quickly. Okay, this'll be easy!_

He concentrated his chakra very hard into his forehead. He kept gathering and kept gathering it until he gathered so much that…

His head hurt. It hurt _really _bad. Like, _really really _bad. _Ouch! Why did it hurt so much?_ Just then he though he had heard someone snicker, but just dismissed it as a symptom of his brand new migraine.

After relaxing and massaging his temples for about thirty minutes, Naruto was ready to try it again. He realized that what he had done wrong was try to store chakra in his head. What he needed to do was to concentrate chakra to that particular release point and push through it. With this thought, he stuck the leaf back onto his head and tried again. He concentrated chakra at the release point and then released in a split second.

The leaf he was using shredded into tiny little leaf pieces. _Whoops,_ he thought,_ too much chakra. Okay, let's try it again!_

For another hour and a half Naruto worked on the chakra control exercise. It was time for him to go show Chiyo how he had improved. He walked into her house and found her reading a book titled _Paralyzing Poisons and Their Antidotes_.

"Chiyo-sensei!" Chiyo looked up and closed her book. "Watch what I can do!"

Naruto grabbed a leaf from his pocket and stuck it to his forehead. A quick concentration and a release later, and the leaf was blown into the roof of Chiyo's house.

"Very good Naruto. That's all for today, you can go home."

Without a second thought, Naruto dashed out the door and ran home.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

knock knock knock

It was eight o'clock and Naruto was standing outside of Temari's apartment. An older woman with brunette hair answered the door. "Yes, can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Temari, ma'am. My name's Naruto."

"Ah yes, she said you would be coming soon. Come on in Naruto-kun." The lady ushered Naruto in. He looked around the apartment. It was the exact same size as his and decorated in much the same way.

"Naruto-kun!" He heard Temari from the balcony of the stairs. "Come up here! I'll teach you how to play shougi better than my stupid brother can."

For the next hour, the only interruption Naruto and Temari had was Kankurou running in to challenge Temari in a game of Shougi. The wager? The loser had to give the other their dessert for the night. Naturally, Temari crushed him.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

The next few weeks had gone about the same. Naruto would get up to the alarm clock Kakashi had placed next to his bed and then go to the academy with Temari. After the academy he would walk back home, do whatever homework he was given, and then go learn from Chiyo. When he had the time (or energy), he would go play shougi with Temari and Kankurou. Throughout this whole time, Kakashi still hadn't come back.

As it was, Kakashi had been gone two and a half weeks. _Jeez, he's late for everything!_ Naruto thought one day, headed home from the Academy. _Oh well, it can't be helped. At least today Chiyo-sensei said I'd be learning the next step of the leaf thingy._ Naruto had worked very hard trying to master the ability to blow the leaf away. Chiyo hadn't made him learn how to just use his forehead, oh no, she made him learn to release it out of every chakra point she could think of. Yesterday she had put leaves numbered one through fifty on different places of his body. She instructed him to blow them off, one by one, in order. If he messed up he'd have to try again and keep trying until he could do it. For this she made him take off his cloak, and was quite amazed when she saw the amount of weights he was carrying.

It had taken him just two tries to knock the leaves off correctly, and only that many because he sneezed the first time (stupid sand), causing them all to fall off.

He arrived at Chiyo's house on time. She was waiting for him in the back yard. When he was standing in front of her, she spoke up.

"Naruto, I'm very pleased at the progress you've made in such a short time. Today I will show you everything I plan on you learning over the next year. The first thing, which we'll start on today, is this." She put a leaf on her head and slowly let it blow off. Naruto thought this was the same old thing until he noticed something; the leaf hadn't moved. She was making it hover above her forehead.

"You must both push the chakra out and make it grab the object, a lot like a combination between water walking and tree climbing. The next thing you'll learn will be some basic healing techniques. Even though, as a shinobi, you should try your best not to get hit, it is still important to be able to treat yourself incase you do get hit. This is very necessary, even with your healing rate. If someone on you're team were to get hurt, you should be able to treat them. The last thing I'm going to teach you are these;" Chiyo threw ten shuriken at Naruto. He wasn't quick enough to dodge them, so he made to deflect them. Right before they hit him, Chiyo pulled back, making them turn around and fly back into her hands. "Chakra strings." Naruto saw the light blue strings leading from her fingers to the weapons before she had revealed them, but he hadn't known what they were. "For now though, it's time for you to learn to control the leaf and make it hover. Good luck. Work on it at least two hours and then come inside." Chiyo walked back into her house.

Two hours later, Naruto had managed to keep the leaf hovering for a little while, but not nearly as long as he thought it should have been. He walked into the house to show Chiyo. There, she had a bag full of freshly cooked dinner waiting for him.

"Very good Naruto. As I understand it, Kakashi still hasn't come back yet, correct?" Naruto nodded. "Alright then, here's some dinner to take home. Put whatever you don't eat in the refrigerator and have it tomorrow. I'll see you then." She showed him to the door and opened it.

"Yo." A familiar voice greeted them at the door.

"Sensei! You're back!" Naruto ran up to Kakashi and hugged him. Slightly at unease, Kakashi patted the boy on the head and got him to let go.

"Hello Naruto. Sorry I've been gone so long. Why don't you go home. There are some things I need to talk to Chiyo-sama about before I meet you back there."

"Yes! Okay Kakashi-sensei, just don't take too long or I'll have to burn you're book!" Naruto dashed off before Kakashi could respond.

_Grrr. I'm going to get that kid if he touches my book._ Kakashi thought.

"Come inside Kakashi-san. I already know why you're here." Kakashi walked inside and Chiyo shut the door.

"So then I take it you already know, Chiyo-sama?"

"About the Kyubi?" Chiyo sat down and took a sip of tea. "Yes, I did. About a week before you came, Sarutobi-san sent me a letter asking me to train Naruto. He seemed to know exactly how to get me to agree to it; he told me about Yondaime Hokage sealing the Kyubi into Naruto. He told me about what Naruto had experienced in Konoha and why Naruto had to be taken away from it. When I heard this I immediately agreed." Kakashi looked relieved.

"Chiyo-sama, I must ask, why did you only agree after finding out that?"

"Because sealing a great demon into a child is wrong. It is very wrong and causes much pain for the child. I know this because the Kazekage's youngest son, Gaara, has the sand demon Shukaku sealed in him." The shock was evident on Kakashi's face. "The only difference between him and Naruto is that Gaara's seal isn't nearly as strong, so the demon affects him more. The seal used on Naruto requires the death of the user. Gaara's seal required the sacrifice of his mother, as Gaara was merged as soon as he had come from her womb. I know all this for I am the one who sealed Shukaku inside of him."

Kakashi's eyes went wide at the memory of Yondaime sealing the Kyubi into Naruto on that fateful day. He had always wanted to know what Yondaime would have felt about the sealing had he been able to live. Now he was talking to someone who had done the same thing and she felt horrible about it.

Chiyo continued. "Unlike Yondaime, however, the Kazekage had this done by choice. He wanted a powerful ninja; the perfect tool for him. Yondaime did his sealing out of necessity, I did mine to further the ambitions of our leader. This, Kakashi-san, is why I'm training Naruto. It is to atone for my mistakes and hopefully give Naruto a better life. I'm not helping him for Konoha. The only person I like in Konoha is Sarutobi-san. I don't even like you, but that's probably just bias based against you from my experience with you're father during the war."

Kakashi almost went sick from all the information, especially when she mentioned his father. It had always been a touchy subject to him. "Thank you Chiyo-sama. That's all I needed to discuss with you. I'll take my leave now."

As he started to walk towards the door, he was stopped.

"Kakashi-san, I wasn't done speaking." Kakashi turned around to face her. "I have another reason I agreed to train him. If you'll recall, when I met you, I mentioned something about my last apprentice." Kakashi nodded. "That apprentice was my grandson, Akasuna no Sasori. Years ago, after the death of both his parents, he became unstable and depressed. In an effort to console him, I taught him everything I knew, even transforming his own parents into puppets. For a few years, he did nothing but work on his puppetry techniques and create puppets for war. Soon, for some reason I dont know, he left Suna in depression and mental instability. Since then, no one has seen nor heard from him though it was suspected that, years later, it was he who killed Sandaime Kazekage. If that is true that means he is incredibly powerful, terrible, and ruthless. I'm training Naruto also because I wish for him to one day bring Sasori back to me. If he cannot do that, then I wish Naruto would kill him and rid the world of his terror. These are my reasons, Kakashi. That's all."

Kakashi nodded in understanding and left her, headed back toward his apartment.

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

_Yes! Kakashi-sensei's back! Maybe he learned some cool new techniques he can show me. I really wish I had the Sharingan too._ Naruto was walking back to the apartment after training with Chiyo.

"Hey!" he heard a voice shouting at him from a small vacant lot. "Hey you! Yeah, kid in the white cloak! Will you come play soccer with us?" Naruto saw a bunch of kids in the lot kicking a ball around.

"Sure!" he shouted back.

Naruto walked over to the game and started playing. About ten minutes into it, one of the kids kicked the ball too hard and it went on top of the big wall around the area. Naruto looked in awe as a mass of sand that he could see was imbued with chakra flew up to the ball and picked it up, carrying it down to a small, red-haired boy.

The rest of the kids looked fearfully at the boy.

The red-haired boy spoke. "Here's your ball back."

All the children started to run away as fast as they could. Naruto didn't understand, and just walked up to the boy.

"Thanks for the ball! My name's Naruto, what's yours?" Naruto felt sorry for the boy. Everyone was treating him like they used to treat Naruto back in Konoha.

The boy looked shocked when he registered that someone actually came up and spoke to him. For a minute he couldn't think of a response.

Finally he spoke again. "My n-name's Gaara. Nice to meet you N-Naruto."

Naruto looked a little sympathetically towards the boy, a remarkable feat for someone who wasn't even five yet. "Alright Gaara, it looks like everyone else ran away." Gaara started to look sad. "But they don't matter. Let's play soccer!"

Gaara looked very happy. No one had ever actually _wanted_ to interact with him before. He felt something weird. _Am I being…accepted?_

And so the two boys played soccer for the next hour. Naruto soon learned that Gaara's sand was used for more than just grabbing things. He had been blocked by it more than a few times when he had tried to score a goal on Gaara.

After they were done, they said goodbye and talked about meeting up again sometime. Naruto then picked up his previous path towards home.

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

Naruto and Kakashi arrived home at the same time.

"Sensei! What took you so long?" Naruto asked once they had gotten inside and Naruto had opened up the bag of food Chiyo had given him.

"Yeah yeah, sorry about that, Naruto. The Kazekage had me do some missions and then I had to go back to Konoha to talk to Hokage-sama. He's very proud of your growth." Kakashi sat down and started to eat. "Also, I figured that your weights are probably starting to feel too light and they're getting too bulky." Kakashi pricked his finger and wiped the blood across a scroll. "Kuchiyose no jutsu."

A box appeared in front of him. "You remember Gai, don't you? You know, green bodysuit, weird hair, and eyebrows that look like they're alive?" Of course Naruto did. It wasn't easy to forget _that_.

"Anyway, I asked him for some good weights." Kakashi opened the box and slid it to Naruto. "He gave me these. They're made of a special material that has chakra sewed into it to make it super heavy. The vest, leg weight holders and arm weight holders without any weights in them are already more than all of what you're wearing right now, except for your cloak. Take your weights off."

Naruto did so and was left in nothing but his boxers. "Wow! Sensei! I feel so light!"

Kakashi then realized that this was the first time Naruto had _ever_ only had to support his own weight since months earlier. "Naruto," Kakashi walked to the other end of the apartment. "Run to me as fast as you can."

Without his Sharingan, Kakashi wasn't able to see Naruto move. One second Naruto was standing in his boxers at the table, and the next he was standing in front of Kakashi. It was almost like he had teleported. Kakashi full well knew this speed. In fact, Kakashi could move faster, but it still amazed him that Naruto wasn't even five and he could already move so fast. _I'd hate to see how physically strong he's gotten._

"Alright, go put those other weights on now." Naruto did so.

"Ano, Sensei," Naruto's voice was strained with the new weight from the new clothes as well as his cloak. "This feels like it… weighs a lot…more than my old…weights."

"Hmm?" Kakashi was already back to reading his beloved orange book. "Oh, they might be. I'm not exactly sure how much they weigh. Anyway, have fun training, because now that you've got them on, you need to get used to your new weights."

Naruto sighed. He knew what was coming. "Run ten laps around Sunagakure, I know Sensei. I'll be back later."

As soon as Naruto walked out the door, Kakashi couldn't help but laugh at the boy. _Haha! That's not even what I was going to get him to do. I was just going to say 'do some pushups' but it's like he expects me to give him the hardest thing possible. Well, I guess he has reason to, given past history…_ Kakashi scratched his head. _Oh well, I just hope he doesn't get used to these weights as fast as he did the last ones. I gave him over one hundred fifty pounds more, so he should struggle for a little while at least. I don't like having to ask Gai for favors. The stupid 'Oh, my eternal rival Kakashi comes to me because his student's youthful and fiery passion outweighs Kakashi's own preparation' is starting to get on my nerves…_

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

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_Please read these A/Ns. They are important._

_A/N: Well, I goofed. GMan is absolutely right; Sasori didnt kill his parents, Sakumo did. I fixed that, so I hope no one really minds. See, this is why I need a proofreader that has actually read up to the current storyline (sorry ecg)._

_Um, and the reason Kakashi didnt see Naruto move was because he wasnt expecting nor was he ready to see Naruto move that fast. _

_So, please forgive those mistakes/misunderstandings. _

_Okay, that was long. The next chapter is going to skip a lot of time, but nothing will be left out. See you next time I update._

_And it may hint at NaruTemari, but it isnt. Sorry, it'll still be NaruHina. _

_Also, dont forget to IM me if you have any questions, ideas, etc. my AIM AmpedArchetype_

_Quick note, TankerMDK, try not to leave a review saying nothing but "Your chapters need more depth." I respect critique, but I need some sort of basis or explanation for the critique. _

_Thanks to everyone else who reviewed, but FF doesnt like me replying to reviews in the story, so seriously, IM me._

_Peace._


	6. Chapter 6: Goodbyes and Hellos

_Author's Note: Here's Chapter Six. Hope you dont mind the time skip too much._

Disclaimer: I dont own Naruto._  
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_**Chapter Six: Goodbyes and Hellos**_

One and a half years had passed. Naruto was nearing the age of six and coming to the end of his second year at the Sunagakure academy. Over this time, he had become quite good friends with Gaara, Kankurou and Temari (however, he still didn't know that Gaara was related to either of them).

Naruto's training with Chiyo became more and more incredible as time went by. It only took him a few weeks to be able to make leaves (and other objects) hover over any part of his body. Chiyo then taught him some basic and intermediate healing techniques, which, thanks to his 'chakra vision', as he called it (Kakashi _hated_ the name), he learned _extremely_ fast.

Finally, it came time for him to learn chakra strings. Through all his hard work and determination he was finally able to form useful chakra strings after six months. Useful, but not anywhere near perfect. Over the rest of the time he trained with Chiyo, he had almost mastered them. She had even shown him some _very_ basic puppetry skills. Naruto was now able to attach chakra strings to almost anything and manipulate it quite well.

He and Kankurou had really hit it off at the academy during one especially boring day. Kankurou got bored and attached a chakra string to a pencil, making it dance around Inori-sensei's head when his back was turned.

It was about this time that Naruto was just beginning to refine his chakra strings. He also grabbed a pencil and started 'sword fighting' with Kankurou's pencil in the front of the room. As soon as they had found out that they were both learning to use chakra strings, they formed a great friendship. During any breaks (or boring class time) they would work together in creating cool uses for chakra strings or even playing pranks on students with them.

After their first meeting, Gaara and Naruto started playing with each other more and more. Gaara told Naruto that his sand was something his mother had left for him because she loved him. After a few months of friendship, Gaara just stopped showing up. When Naruto asked around town what had happened to him, no one seemed to know.

Or care.

Naruto still played shougi with Temari. She didn't really like playing against him anymore, because it seemed that for a while now she wasn't even a challenge for him. She had called Naruto a genius, for that's what people called her when they referred to her strategy. If she was supposed to be a genius, then Naruto, who was two years younger than her, had to be some sort of super genius. It was almost like he knew what moves she was going to make before she made them. He anticipated the moves many moves further ahead than she did.

Kakashi was starting to get upset with Naruto. It seemed the addition of advanced chakra control and manipulation was expediting his growth even more. Kakashi had lost count of the amount of weight Naruto was wearing. He was sure it had to be due to the Kyubi.

Naruto had thoroughly enjoyed his stay in Suna. It had become his home. He was accepted here, even liked. He decided that he never wanted to leave. Naruto was headed home from his last day in the academy before the second-year graduation ceremony. He opened the door to his apartment.

"Yo." Kakashi greeted him at the door. "Got news, kid. Sandaime requested that we both go back to Konoha. We'll be leaving in a week."

Naruto closed the door and walked over to Temari's apartment.

Knock Knock

"Hey, Temari-chan? My Sensei's being crazy, can you let me come in?" Kakashi walked over to Naruto, picked him up, and took him back into their apartment.

After depositing Naruto on the couch, Kakashi started speaking. "I'm not joking, nor am I crazy. You remember when I told you about the Sharingan?" Naruto nodded. "Well, a member of the clan that possesses the Sharingan, the Uchiha, decided that he felt like murdering the whole clan except his six year old brother." Naruto's face told Kakashi 'So what? Why do we have to go back?'. "Since I'm the only other person alive with a Sharingan, Sandaime requested that we return to Konoha so I can be there to help him when his Sharingan manifests."

"But Sensei! I don't want to go back there! I want to stay here with Temari and Kankurou! Please don't make me go back there!" Naruto had tears in his eyes.

_I really don't want you to have to go back either, kid, but you'll have to go back sometime. Better sooner than later._ "Sorry kid. Sandaime's orders. You've got a week to get your goodbyes done and such."

Naruto dejectedly walked up the stairs and into his room. He locked the door.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

Two days later, Naruto _finally _unlocked his door and came out. He had accepted that he would have to back to Konoha.

After getting something small to eat, he walked out the door and went to Chiyo's house first to tell her.

Knock Knock Knock

"Hello Naruto, coming to tell me goodbye?" Chiyo opened up the door and let him in.

"Yes ma'am, but how did you know?"

"Kakashi told me. I had to get some things ready for you before you left. First, take this." She handed him a small puppet. Naruto knew from his bookwork that, when used in battle, the puppet was completely worthless. It was a ceremonial gift given from master to student when the master feels proud of everything the student has accomplished. It represents that the student has finished his learning and is ready to put it to use.

Naruto was in awe. He hadn't expected to receive this, not in his wildest dreams.

"Th-Thank you Chiyo-sensei, err… Chiyo-sama."

"You're welcome Naruto, but that's not all. The next thing is this." She held up a book. "This book is my personal data inventory. I wrote down every chakra manipulation technique I know in here. There aren't any actual attacks, but I'm sure you'll be able to make your own. I made a copy of it, so don't feel bad about taking it."

Naruto stared at the book, almost not wanting to open it just because of the sheer power he felt it could have. He did anyway. Just as she said, everything was in her own handwriting. Naruto closed the book and was almost in tears from the emotion of the gifts he was receiving.

"The last gift I'm giving you isn't really a gift. In fact, it's more of a favor. This," she handed him a picture of a young boy who couldn't be more than 10 or 11 years older than him. "His name is Akasuna no Sasori. Should you ever come across him, try to get him to come back to Suna peacefully. If you cannot do that, please, kill him."

Naruto processed what Chiyo had just said. If almost anyone else had told him to kill someone, he probably would never have spoken to that person again. But he knew Chiyo well enough to know that she wouldn't ask him to kill someone unless there was a very good reason behind it. He didn't need to know that reason, as he trusted Chiyo. "Yes ma'am, I will." Naruto slipped the picture under his cloak and into his vest pocket.

"Very well, Naruto. I guess this is the last I'll see you for a while then. Keep practicing your chakra control and you'll be able to beat old Sarutobi-san any day now." Chiyo waved goodbye to him as he left her house.

"Bye Chiyo-sama!" He yelled. "Thank you!"

He would do anything for her he could. She was one of his precious people.

Deciding that he wasn't mentally strong enough to handle another goodbye today, he headed home and fell asleep as soon as he hit his bed.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

Naruto woke up early the next day. He still had to tell people that he was leaving in a few days. He walked out the door after eating breakfast and over to Kankurou and Temari's apartment. When no one answered him from there, he decided to go check Temari's favorite dango shop.

Sure enough, eating at the table closest to the door were Temari and Kankurou.

"Morning Naruto-kun." Naruto waved at Temari.

"Hey baka." Naruto flicked Kankurou for the name.

"Hey guys." Naruto sat down at the table with them. "I've had a lot of fun here and you two are my best friends. That's why I'm telling you this now." His seriousness caught their attention. "My sensei and I are leaving."

"Neat." Kankurou didn't understand what Naruto meant. "How long are you going to be gone? Can you bring me something back?"

Temari, however, understood perfectly. "No, you idiot. He means he's leaving Sunagakure. Naruto's not from here, remember?" Kankurou thought for a second and then whispered something that sounded like 'oh yeah'.

"Are you leaving for good then? Going to another village?" Kankurou asked.

"No. At least not yet." Naruto looked around the room for anyone listening in. "The truth is, we're from Konoha. That's also where we're going back to. The Hokage requested my sensei back there for something. I'm probably not going to be coming back to Suna. I already told Chiyo-sama goodbye, but she already seemed to know I wasn't coming back."

Temari got up and walked out of the restaurant.

"Anyway, thanks for being my friend Kankurou. Keep playing pranks on Inori-sensei for me." Naruto hugged Kankurou.

"Alright baka. We'll miss you. See ya." Naruto walked out of the restaurant to find Temari.

Naruto walked back to the apartments. He knew Temari was probably there.

Naruto knocked on the door and it opened. Temari had forgotten to close it when she went in. Naruto walked in and upstairs to her room.

"Temari-chan? Are you up here?"

"Yeah. I'm here." Naruto sat down outside her door. "Are you really leaving?"

"We are." Naruto's voice was dripping with sorrow.

"You don't sound like want to leave."

"I don't."

Temari opened her door. "Then don't!" she screamed.

"I don't have a choice. I would never choose to go back to that place." The coldness in his voice made her shiver. "I hate it there. The only reason I'm going back is because sensei has to go."

Temari just stared at him. It wasn't an angry stare, it was more of a stare of pity.

"Anyway, we're leaving in four days. Thanks for being my friend, Temari-chan." He hugged her and walked back to his apartment.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

For the next four days, Naruto gathered his things up and tied up all the loose ends he needed to. Inori-sensei had given him his transcripts from the academy so he could continue his studies in Konoha. He said that the teacher in Konoha was a good friend of his and he would be sure to put in a good word for Naruto. He said goodbye to all of his classmates. Most of them were a little sad to see him go but made sure to note how nice it would be to only have _one_ troublemaker.

Finally, the day he was supposed to leave arrived.

"You ready to go Naruto?" Kakashi picked up his pack and put it on.

"Yes sensei, I'm ready."

They walked out the door and to the gates of Sunagakure. Naruto looked around, half expecting to see someone there to see him off. When he saw no one, he turned to Kakashi. "Let's go, sensei."

They walked out of Sunagakure and into the desert.

About five minutes later, a young, blonde-headed girl ran to the gates with a gift box in her arms.

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

Once they had gotten into the woods at the edge of the desert, Kakashi and Naruto stopped

"Naruto, before we went to Suna, I told you that you had to learn advanced chakra control for something I was going to teach you, remember?" Naruto thought back for a moment and then nodded. Kakashi pulled a small blade out from the bottom of his pack. "This is a weapon called a chakra fang. It was given to me by my father, and it is what earned him the name 'Konoha's White Fang'. If you can learn to utilize the abilities of this weapon, it's yours. Let me demonstrate." Kakashi held out the fang. He swiped it a few inches from a tree trunk. The trunk was cut down. Naruto looked at the fang and saw that chakra had formed a blade from the tip of the fang to about eight inches outward. "The idea is to channel a specific amount of controlled and refined chakra into the fang, letting the chakra turn into an extension of the fang."

Naruto thought it was really cool. Now he could see why he needed all of the training he got from Chiyo. This would be as hard as learning to make chakra strings.

"So, Naruto," Naruto looked up at Kakashi. "do you think you can do it?"

"Definitely sensei. I'll master this in a month!" Naruto said energetically.

Kakashi handed him the fang in it's holster. "Please be careful with it, Naruto. That fang is very special."

They kept walking for a few more hours until it started to get dark. Kakashi said that they weren't in any hurry to get back, so they could stop and rest now. In the distance, they could see a small town, so Kakashi decided they could stay there for the night.

Kakashi and Naruto checked into a hotel and put their stuff down on the beds. They went down to the restaurant of the hotel to get something to eat.

As soon as they walked into the restaurant, a loud voice boomed throughout the restaurant. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE 'OUT OF SAKE'?".

Kakashi looked to where the voice came from. When he saw who had shouted, he froze. Naruto noticed this and tugged on Kakashi's sleeve. "Anosa Kakashi-sensei, what's wrong?"

Kakashi didn't even notice Naruto. Only one word left his mouth- "Tsunade-sama!" He walked over to the blonde woman's table and sat down. Naruto cautiously followed.

"Tsunade-sama! What are you doing here?" Kakashi's shocked voice registered in Tsunade's head once he had sat down.

"Ah, Kakashi-kun. How good to see you again. Just here for some gambling. If you haven't noticed, there was a dice tournament here this week."

"I hadn't noticed." Kakashi had completely forgotten that Tsunade had left the village a few years before Kyubi had attacked. He didn't really know the reason. He also didn't care to ask.

"Ano, Kakashi-sensei, who is that?" Naruto pointed to Tsunade.

"This is Tsunade-sama. She, along with Jiraiya-sama and Orochimaru, make up the legendary Sannin. They are three of the most powerful ninja in the world, and they were Sandaime Hokage's students." Kakashi replied with an air of respect when he said Tsunade's and Jiraiya's names, but pure hatred when he mentioned Orochimaru.

"Anyway, Tsunade-sama, who is this young lady." Kakashi pointed to a young brown-haired girl about his age who had sat down at the table.

"Ah yes, Kakashi-kun, meet my apprentice, Shizune. Shizune, this is the copy ninja Hatake Kakashi, Yondaime's star student." Kakashi waved to Shizune.

"Kakashi," Tsunade started speaking again. "You haven't introduced us to you're young friend."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. It is nice to meet you Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san."

"Oh! How polite he is." Tsunade started laughing. "I would never have imagined that you would have taken on a student, Kakashi."

"Naruto, why don't you go wash up for dinner." Kakashi pointed toward the bathroom and Naruto left.

Tsunade picked up on Kakashi's hint. "Shizune, why don't you go help him."

As soon as they were out of earshot, Kakashi spoke up. "Naruto is the Yondaime's legacy."

Tsunade gasped. "You mean that the Kyubi…" Kakashi nodded. "In him?" Kakashi nodded again. "So that's why…"

"Yes, that's why. The village hates him. They tried to kill him and Sandaime needed to find someone to take him out of the village. You were his first choice, but he didn't know where you were. Jiraiya was his second choice, but there was no way for Jiraiya to get back to Konoha in time. So, I was instructed to take him out of the village. Unfortunately, with the recent massacre of the Uchiha, Sandaime has called me back to Konoha. Naruto doesn't want to go, and is still deathly afraid of Konoha."

Tsunade knew what was coming. She cut him off before he could ask it. "No. I will not take Naruto with me. I hate kids, and I already have an apprentice. Sorry Kakashi-kun." Her voice was stern, but it still showed some sorrow through it.

For the rest of the night, Tsunade would find herself occasionally staring at Naruto, and Naruto would just wonder what Kakashi had said to her.

_XXXXXXXXX_

The next morning, Kakashi and Naruto set back out for Konoha.

After they had been walking for a few hours, they came to another small town. Here, Kakashi sensed a horrible, foreboding feeling. He rushed through the town gates and looked around.

Everywhere he looked there were broken buildings and small craters in the ground. He looked at one building in particular, which had the molted skin of a _very_ large snake. Kakashi knew what was happening, and he dreaded it dearly. The only evil legendary sannin had come through here. From the shattered buildings and craters in the ground, he could only guess a fight had also broken out between him and Tsunade.

Though he did not want to, for the sake of his village Kakashi followed the trail of destruction.

"Naruto, stay very close to me and be careful." Naruto gave Kakashi no response, but stayed right next to him as they ran on the trail of destruction.

"You remember how I said Tsunade was one of the legendary sannin? Well, her two teammates were the other two. One is an excellent writer and loyal ninja called Jiraiya. The other is an insane and twisted man called Orochimaru. He was hungry for power and wanted to become the Yondaime Hokage. His thirst for power drove him mad. He was discovered killing Konoha ninjas, from genin to jounin, and using them to create an immortality jutsu. He was banished from Konoha and classified as a class S missing nin." Kakashi could feel great power close ahead.

"I have reason to believe that Orochimaru is here, and he is after Tsunade-sama."

Naruto stumbled. "Kakashi-sensei, if he is as powerful as you say he is, what can we do against him?"

"All we're going to do is help Tsunade-sama. She is still a Konoha ninja, even if she isn't loyal. Now quiet, they're right ahead."

They both fell in silence. Ahead they could see Tsunade talking to a pale, black-haired man dressed in black robes with swirling red clouds. Naruto guessed this was Orochimaru.

To Naruto, it looked like the talking had come to a close. Kakashi motioned to him to take off his weights, stay here and not move. Naruto motioned an okay. Kakashi lifted his forehead protector away from his eye, exposing his Sharingan. In an instant Kakashi moved from his place with Naruto directly beside Tsunade. In the distance Naruto could also see Shizune hiding.

He couldn't hear anything, but it was apparent to him that Orochimaru was laughing at Kakashi and Tsunade. Orochimaru bit his thumb and made some seals. Without any warning a huge snake came out from under Orochimaru.

Naruto watched as the big snake lunged towards Tsunade. She made the same seals as Orochimaru, summoning a huge blue and white slug while Kakashi used Katon: KaryuuDan.

Orochimaru cancelled Kakashi's attack with a Suiton attack. He said something to the snake and it changed course to move away from the acid shot from Tsunade's slug's mouth.

Orochimaru hopped off his snake's head and dashed towards Kakashi. Kakashi threw one shuriken at Orochimaru. Naruto watched in awe as the single shuriken multiplied into over a thousand. Orochimaru didn't seem to care though, as he merely jumped over them. While Orochimaru was still in the air, Kakashi jumped up to intercept him.

Naruto watched as Orochimaru and Kakashi traded blows in the air, neither one landing any hits, though it looked like the only reason Kakashi wasn't being hit was because of his Sharingan. It was clear Orochimaru was much stronger and faster.

They landed twenty yards from each other. Orochimaru dashed towards Kakashi again, shooting his tongue out from his mouth. Kakashi was taken by surprise and tried to jump back, but wasn't fast enough. The tongue coiled around his neck as he tried desperately to pull it off.

Just before Kakashi felt like he was going to lose consciousness, the tongue quickly let go of his throat. Panting, he looked over to Orochimaru to see why he had let go. It was apparent to Kakashi why the tongue had so hastily left him.

In front of him, a large crater lay where Orochimaru had been standing. As it was, Tsunade and he were fighting about 100 feet away. It looked like they were fairly evenly matched.

Tsunade kicked out extremely hard. Orochimaru blocked with both his arms, but the force still sent him flying. Disoriented by the sheer force of her kick, he didn't have time to prepare an attack to subdue the charging Tsunade. He did the only thing he could think of. Pulling out a Kunai he…

Cut himself. Naruto immediately thought the man had gone crazy. Orochimaru had slashed the front of his forearm, letting blood run freely. He swung his arm out at a wide-eyed Tsunade, causing her to immediately stop and fall down.

Neither Naruto nor Kakashi understood what had just happened. All they knew is that Tsunade was completely incapacitated. They watched as a snake came out of Orochimaru's mouth holding a sword. Slowly, he approached Tsunade, sword raised in his hand. To Naruto's horror, he brought the sword down to slash Tsunade.

Kakashi focused every bit of Chakra he could into his legs. He dashed in front of Tsunade and blocked Orochimaru's slash with the guards on the back of his hands. The sudden block took Orochimaru by surprise, allowing Kakashi to land a kick to his midsection, blowing him back. Kakashi grabbed Tsunade, formed some seals and quickly disappeared. Naruto looked over to where Shizune was hiding and saw Kakashi giving her Tsunade.

Kakashi jumped out from the hiding area to stall Orochimaru until Tsunade could recover. Unfortunately for him, Orochimaru immediately started attacking. Within no time at all, Kakashi had been worn down by Orochimaru and was swatted away into unconsciousness.

Naruto watched as his sensei flew into the ground and Orochimaru went silent and very still. To Naruto's horror, Orochimaru opened up his eyes, formed some seals, and shot a huge flame blast to where Shizune was tending to Tsunade. Too occupied with treating Tsunade, Shizune didn't notice the blast until it was too late. She crouched over Tsunade with her back to the flames to protect them and waited for the blast.

It never came.

Shizune looked up to where the blast should have been and saw Naruto standing there with his hands in the 'bird' seal and steam in front of him.

"Shizune-san, are you okay?" Naruto asked her.

Before she could respond however, another voice answered him. "Oh, and who is this?" Orochimaru's voice chilled Naruto. " A little brat who thinks he can protect them?"

Orochimaru formed some seals and shouted "Doton: Doryuu Dango". He reached down and grabbed the ground, pulling out a large chunk of it. Naruto stood still, he was not going to be shaken. Orochimaru threw the large chunk of ground at Naruto, Shizune and Tsunade.

It landed with a loud thud.

"Well, that was quick." Orochimaru started laughing. "I have to admit kid, you're pretty fast." Orochimaru looked over to where Naruto was holding Tsunade and Shizune. He had picked them up and moved them before the land mass had flattened him.

Naruto locked eyes with Orochimaru. This was what Orochimaru had been hoping for. A wave of killer intent rushed through Naruto. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He felt paralyzed by the pure wrath emanating from Orochimaru.

Orochimaru looked upon the young boy that stood in front of him in only his boxers. Something felt odd about this boy. How could this kid have enough stamina to perform a Suiton attack to cancel out Orochimaru's Katon: Ryuuka, then save Tsunade from being crushed, and still be able to stand.

He kept studying the boy until his eyes fell upon Naruto's stomach, where a spiral-like seal immediately answered all of his questions. _So this is the Kyubi boy, eh? _"Hey kid!" Naruto's stare continued to stay on Orochimaru. "Do you know what that seal is there on you're stomach?" Naruto couldn't answer. He was still paralyzed and having trouble breathing from Orochimaru's Kanashibari no jutsu. "I guess not, huh. Well let me tell you."

Shizune knew about the Kyubi. She noticed it when Naruto saved her and Tsunade. She also knew that Sandaime had requested that Naruto not know. In an effort to stop Orochimaru, she jumped toward him, shooting needles from her arm. He grabbed them out of the air and dropped them.

"You should have stayed where you were." He grabbed her and threw her into a tree. Naruto could feel himself getting angrier, but felt that he had to listen to Orochimaru. Maybe he would explain something about Naruto that Naruto didn't know.

Orochimaru turned his attention back to Naruto. "I'm sure you've heard the story of how Yondaime Hokage killed Kyubi. That's not the truth. The truth is that your _Yondaime_" he almost spat the word "was too _weak_ to kill Kyubi. Instead, he had to seal it into a baby boy." Naruto knew what this had meant. A look of understanding went through his face. "I guess you know what that means."

"Since you can't move, I'll give you the pleasure of watching me kill these three weaklings. Then you can come back with me." Orochimaru walked over to where Kakashi was. He picked him up and threw him towards Naruto. "So, how do you think I should do it? Should I immolate him? Crush him? Or maybe" Orochimaru grabbed his sword "I should slice him." He ran his tongue along the blade. "Yes, I think that will do nicely."

He raised the sword up. _No!_ Naruto thought. _No! No! No! NO! NO! NO! MOVE!_

A burst of red chakra came from Naruto. His eyes went blood red and the marks on his cheeks darkened. Orochimaru paused when he felt the power coming from Naruto. _So this is the Kyubi's power. Fine then, let's see what he can do!_ Orochimaru kicked Kakashi away.

Orochimaru locked eyes with Naruto and used Kanashibari again. It had no effect on Naruto. Instead, Naruto shot forward with his head thrust out. He headbutted Orochimaru hard in the stomach.

While flying back, Orochimaru lashed his tongue out at Naruto. Naruto disappeared from Orochimaru's view before the tongue reached him. Orochimaru felt Naruto's power behind him and looked back. There was Naruto, standing on the ground waiting for Orochimaru to land. _Nice try kid!_ Orochimaru bit his thumb and formed more seals. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

A giant snake poofed into existence in the air with Orochimaru. It immediately lunged at Naruto with it's mouth open. It crashed into the ground, mouth first, making a crater right onto of Naruto.

"Kukukuku! It looks like the Kyubi boy wasn't as powerful as everyone had feared." Orochimaru's laughing was cut short, however, when he saw his snake explode. In the middle of the carnage stood Naruto.

_Hmm, it looks like the fun's not over yet!_ Just then, Orochimaru's ring glowed. _It looks like I'm needed. I guess I'll have to cut my fun short._

With inhuman speed he dashed towards Naruto with purple chakra coming from each of his fingers. "Gogoufuuin!" He struck Naruto hard in the stomach, sealing up any chakra that could be coming from the Kyubi.

Orochimaru's ring flashed again, and then burned his hand. _Alright already! I'm coming!_ "Sorry, Naruto. It looks like we can't finish our battle today. Have fun with that seal. Kukukuku!" Laughing, Orochimaru disappeared into the ground.

Completely drained, Naruto fell to the ground and blacked out.

From the side of the battlefield, another set of eyes watched the battle. _That's the boy Yondaime sealed Kyubi into? I see… It looks like he could help me clear my name. _

The young black haired man stepped out of the bushes and walked over to Naruto. He picked him up and then walked back to where Naruto had first come out of hiding. _I guess if I'm going to take him, I might as well get his things too._ The young man picked up Naruto's weights and loaded them into Kakashi's pack. He picked it up and walked off.

The boy had been amazed when he saw the amount of power coming from Naruto. _Already so strong and he's just my brother's age. He could prove to be very useful. And besides, it's not like the village actually wanted him back. If you think about it, I'm actually doing him a favor._

And with that thought, the boy disappeared with Naruto.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

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_Author's Notes: Okay, well I screwed up last chapter (before I fixed it). GMan pointed out that Sasori didnt in fact kill his parents. That was my goof. Sorry._

_Before anyone asks, no, Chiyo did not mean Naruto can beat Sarutobi. Those were just motivational words, not actually saying he could do it._

_Also, to clarify, the book Chiyo gives Naruto has no puppetry in it, just chakra manipulation techniques. He's not going to be a puppet master, so there._

_NairbEel2121: Thanks for proofing for me. Also thanks for the ideas and such. Oh, and I put it up "now"!  
_

_TankerMDK: It's alright man, just wanted to clear that up. Thanks._

_Thanks to everyone else who reviewed. I'm not supposed to respond here, but If you IM or email me, I'll talk to you then. AIM AmpedArchetype. Email _


	7. Chapter 7: All Sealed Up

_A/N:_

_ Jeez, it's been a while. Sorry for taking so long to update, but like November was NaNoWriMo (put a dot org after that and go to the webpage) where you have to write a 50000 word novel in a month. That was fun (and by fun I mean torture). Then December brought evil school and exams. Anyway, sorry for taking so long._

_Here's the story: (of a lovely lady. Who had...ackk) _

**Disclaimer: **aww screw it_**  
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_**Chapter Seven: All Sealed Up**_

About an hour after the battle, Kakashi was awoken by Shizune.

"Shizune! Where is Orochimaru!" Kakashi shot up and looked around.

"He's gone. So is Naruto." Shizune said. "They got into a fight, and Orochimaru used Kanashibari on Naruto. He was about to tell Naruto about the Kyubi when I attacked. He knocked me out." Shizune looked at the crater and fang marks on the ground. "It looks like they fought some more after I was knocked out. When I woke up, Tsunade was still covered in blood, shivering, and both Naruto and Orochimaru were gone."

"So, it seems like Orochimaru took Naruto." Shizune nodded. "This is bad. I need to go to Sandaime quickly. There's no telling what Orochimaru could do."

"No." Tsunade's voice came in. "I saw what happened. Naruto broke out of Orochimaru's technique using what I can only guess was Kyubi's chakra." Kakashi's jaw dropped. "That's not even the half of it. He was putting up a fair fight for a little while, but Orochimaru was too much for him. Orochimaru used the Gogoufuuin on him and then just left."

"So if Orochimaru left, where's Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"After Orochimaru left and Naruto passed out, a young ninja walked out of the woods, picked up Naruto and left with him."

"What village was he from?"

"He had no forehead protector, but he was from Konoha."

Kakashi looked puzzled. "Then how did you know he was a ninja, especially one from Konoha?"

"Because" she started, "He had the Sharingan."

Alarm went through Kakashi. _That means…_ "Uchiha Itachi. Damn, this is really bad."

"Kakashi-san," Shizune asked "how do you know who it is?"

"About a week and a half ago, almost the whole Uchiha clan was slaughtered by one of the clan members." Tsunade and Shizune gasped. "The only one left alive was his little brother, Sasuke. The one who killed everyone was Uchiha Itachi. He fled Konoha as an S-Class missing- nin."

"So" Tsunade started. "Naruto is in the hands of an S-Class madman who slaughtered his clan. Great."

"But, you said Orochimaru used some sort of seal on him. What was it?" Kakashi asked Tsunade.

"The Gogoufuuin. It's a very advanced five point seal. By using it on Naruto, Orochimaru made the five points of the seal overlap the four of Yondaime's. It completely cut off any chakra he could be getting from the Kyubi." Tsunade thought for a moment. "That explains why he passed out."

"So Naruto's with an S-Class missing-nin, and he's got a handicap." Kakashi knew he needed to find Naruto, but he still had his duty to his village. He needed to see Sandaime.

Shizune piped in. "Tsunade-sama, can the seal be removed?"

"It can. Only three people can do it though: my teammates and Sarutobi-sensei."

"So," Kakashi started, "we have to hope that somehow he can either get to Sandaime or Jiraiya and get that seal taken off. Do you think it will have any effect other than cutting off his connection to the Kyubi?"

Tsunade nodded. "It'll probably screw up his chakra control bad. The seal blocked some of his chakra control."

"I'm going back to Konoha to inform Sandaime. Thank you Tsunade-sama." Kakashi dashed off with only one thought in his mind: _Oh shit._

_XXXXXXXXXX_

At the same time Kakashi started running back to Konoha, Naruto woke up.

_Where am I?_ Naruto thought with his eyes still closed. _I'm moving. Someone's carrying me? Kakashi-sensei? No, this person doesn't run like Kakashi-sensei. _Naruto opened his eyes and looked up inquisitively at the person who was carrying him.

"Ano," the person stopped and set Naruto down. "who are you?"

"My name is Itachi." Itachi sat down against a tree. "and what's your name?"

"Um, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto was a bit tense. After all, he was being carried by someone he didn't really know away from anyone he did. He started slowly putting distance between himself and Itachi.

_So he **is** the fox kid. _Itachi thought. _Good, with him on my side I should definitely be able to get an audience with Sandaime._

"So, why were you carrying me Itachi-san?" Naruto was still tense and ready to flee just incase. He continued to slowly back up.

"Well, for one, I'm going to train you." Itachi knew this would excite the boy.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?"

"Probably still lying on the ground after his fight with Orochimaru." Itachi said nonchalantly.

"So you basically took me without anyone knowing, right?" Itachi nodded. "You say you're going to train me?" Itachi nodded again. "What if I don't want to be trained? Can I go back to Kakashi-sensei?"

Itachi shook his head. "Nope. It's your choice whether you want me to train you or not, but you're staying with me no matter what."

"So you kidnapped me and are holding me prisoner."

"If you want to look at it like _that_, then yeah, I guess I did. To tell you the truth, back in Konoha I was the victim of an unfortunate misunderstanding. I'm hoping you can help me clear my name because of your closeness with Sandaime."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you Itachi-san, but I have no intention of being your prisoner." Naruto smiled at Itachi and dashed at him as fast as he could. "Kage Bunshin!" Naruto yelled.

Nothing happened. Itachi grabbed Naruto and held him in the air at arm's length. "Now look, you can't mold chakra properly. Something Orochimaru did to you messed it up. There's no way you can run away, so stop trying. Until you regain chakra control, all you've got is taijutsu." Naruto looked horrified. He had just spent the better part of two years learning advanced chakra control and now he couldn't use any of it.

Naruto withdrew and sat at the base of a tree across from Itachi.

"Now, I suppose you remember what Orochimaru told you about the Kyubi. It's true. You're the vessel for it. Kyubi's chakra is what enabled you to face Orochimaru. He stopped the flow of Kyubi's chakra to you, and since you were already drained, you passed out."

Itachi reached into his pocket and threw a soldier pill to Naruto. "I'm going to help you regain some control until we can find a way to get that seal off. If you think about it, I'm doing you a big favor."

Naruto stared at him like he was crazy. "Really? How's that?"

"I remember what happened a little over two years ago." Naruto shivered. "I bet that there's no way in hell you want to go back to Konoha. I have no intention of going back there for a while. I need to let things cool off first. That means we'll be traveling to other places while you train."

Naruto decided it might not be so bad. Sure, he didn't know this guy at all, but he seemed nice enough and genuine, not to mention the fact that he wouldn't have to go back to Konoha. "Okay Itachi-sensei, but shouldn't Kakashi-sensei at least know where I am?"

"He already knows. Tsunade-sama saw me take you, and no doubt recognized me. And don't call me sensei. Our ages are too close, it would look suspicious."

"Okay." Naruto looked down at himself. He was completely bereft of his cloak and weights. "Itachi-sempai, where are my weights and clothes?"

Itachi threw him the cloak. "I only got the cloak and the two bags. Your weights would have slowed me down too much. If you need them, we can get some new ones."

Naruto put on his clothes and his cloak.

"Alright, let's put some more distance between us and Konoha, and then I'll start training you."

Itachi and Naruto started running again. About three hours later, they came to a small clearing.

"Naruto, stop." Naruto did so. "Let's see how much control you still have. Perform Henge."

Naruto put his hands into a seal and then slowly focused his chakra. "Henge."

A second later, standing in front of Itachi was another Itachi. It was almost perfect, but still could have been better.

"Alright. It took you too long to focus and it still wasn't perfect. I'd say your control is severely messed up." Naruto undid the transformation. "Try walking up this tree."

Naruto ran towards the tree, determined not to mess up. He put one foot on the tree and tried to run up. After two steps, he fell down. "Damnit, he screwed me up bad!"

Itachi sighed. There was eventually going to be a time when the hunter nin caught up to them. He hoped Naruto would be ready to take care of himself. If that was going to happen, Naruto had a long way to go.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

Meanwhile, back in Konoha Kakashi was briefing Sandaime on what happened.

"So you say that while you were unconscious, Uchiha Itachi kidnapped Naruto?" The Hokage took a draw on his pipe.

"Yes Hokage-sama. I request a team of ANBU recover Naruto." Kakashi pleaded with the Hokage. "We need to find him. There's nothing he can do to defend himself as long as he's got the Gogoufuuin on him."

The Hokage took another draw. "This is a troubling turn of events. On one hand, Naruto was kidnapped. That means that he's not with anyone he knows and might put him in danger of anyone that knows about the Kyubi." The Hokage thought for a minute. _It's good he's with Itachi though. There's not many people that can take out Itachi so at least he'll be protected from most people._ "On the other hand, we can't send anyone to look for him."

Kakashi looked troubled. "I do not understand Hokage-sama. Why can't we search for him?"

"Because Itachi took him for a reason. Anyone that shows up to take Naruto from him will probably end up being killed, and there are only 4 or 5 ninja in this village that could win against Itachi. All of those ninja, you included, have more important duties to attend to. Remember, I called you back here for a reason. While direct contact with the boy is not needed, Uchiha Sasuke needs to be watched over, and I need you to do it so in the future you will be able to train him in his Sharingan as you have already witnessed his growth." The Hokage took a draw on his pipe. "He's witnessed a tragic thing. I fear for his mental safety."

"Yes Hokage-sama. I understand." Kakashi turned around slowly and walked to the door.

"Naruto will be fine." Sandaime said as if it were a fact. "Don't worry about him. Even though Itachi killed his whole clan, there's nothing to suggest that he would hurt Naruto. Besides, I have a feeling Naruto can take care of himself."

"One additional thing, Hokage-sama. Do you know the current whereabouts of Jiraiya-sama?"

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

"Itachi, where are we going?" Naruto said calmly as they ran through the trees.

"Into a place where I can fight easier." Itachi said, staring straight forward as he ran.

Naruto had a puzzled look on his face. "I'm fighting you?"

Itachi mentally cursed. Of course Naruto couldn't sense them. _I doubt he's ever been taught anything about tracking. Once this is over we'll have to remedy that._ "No. Do not turn around. We're being followed by two Konoha Hunter-nin. They don't seem too strong. We'll be fighting them at the next clearing. Since you can't use Chakra I want you to be careful and fight the weaker one. They shouldn't be any trouble, but it will be good for you to get some combat experience."

Naruto nodded. He swallowed audibly. _I'm going to have to fight…Konoha ninja._

They came to a small clearing. Itachi stopped and Naruto followed suit. They turned around.

Two ninja in white masks with red marks landed in front of them. Both ninja were relatively small in stature. One had a katana strapped to his waist. Along his bear arms were innumerable scars. From his reading on strategy, Naruto concluded that this man preferred weapons in close combat. The other man wore no visible weapons other than his kunai and shuriken.

"It looks as though you finally noticed us." The man with the Katana spoke up.

Itachi stayed quiet. Naruto didn't plan on doing anything until Itachi instructed him.

"Not going to talk eh?" The one with no weapons said. "I guess that means you know why we're here?"

Itachi didn't move. The fact that these were hunter-nin and that they were after Itachi intrigued Naruto. He would have to ask about it later.

"Well fine, but I'm going to do this anyway." Itachi glared at the man. He obviously didn't plan on Naruto finding out about his crime so soon. "Uchiha Itachi," Naruto's eyes widened at the name. "You are charged with the torture and slaughter of the entire Uchiha clan. Your sentence is death."

Itachi didn't move, but his vision slowly traveled to Naruto, wondering what his reaction would be.

_WHAT THE HELL. _ Naruto's thoughts were confused and angry as hell at the same time. _I'VE BEEN WALKING AROUND WITH A MASS MURDERER WHO'S BASICALLY TAKEN ME CAPTIVE. _He turned his head and looked at Itachi. Then he turned and looked at the two hunter-nin. "So he is the one who killed his entire clan?'

Apparently the two ninja had completely forgotten about Naruto. "Oh, that's right. He is." The ninja with the katana hummed for a moment. "You look familiar." Then he noticed the whisker marks on Naruto's face. "Aha! It's the fox brat. What a good day. Hey," he looked to his partner. "You kill him and make it quick. I'll want help with the Uchiha."

With that, the two ninja rushed at them.

_Shit. I'll worry about Itachi after the fight._ Naruto thought. Itachi was still completely still.

Itachi spoke. "Naruto. We'll talk about it later. Use all of your speed and don't attempt anything that requires chakra." Naruto nodded.

Itachi was reached first. The man had unsheathed his katana and was preparing to strike. Naruto would like to have seen how good Itachi was, but the presence of another ninja about to attack _him_ interfered.

Naruto blocked the man's initial punch. _He's not nearly as strong as Kakashi-sensei._ He jumped back. The ninja jumped towards him. Naruto braced his left leg against the ground as hard as he could and kicked straight out at the man with his right leg.

The kick connected with a block. The man grabbed Naruto's leg and threw him into a tree. Naruto stuck his hands out and sprung off of the tree, letting the impact be absorbed. _Okay, can't play around with this guy. _Naruto decided that there was no more point in wearing even _any_ of his weights. _Alright. I wasn't even trying before. Now I'm going to try, and I took those weights off. I should be fast enough now. _Naruto dashed at the ninja as fast as he could with these thoughts in his head.

And fast he was.

Naruto plunged a punch into the man's gut and then jumped back, waiting to see what would happen. The man coughed for a moment and then regained his composure. "So the demon brat is faster than I thought. No problem though." The man formed some seals. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Three more copies of the man appeared.

_Okay, great. Now there's four of him and their all real. I wonder though…_ Naruto focused for a moment and then he was able to see it. His eyes showed the residue chakra from the technique, clearly outlining which one was real and which were kage bunshin.

"Like the technique demon?" The man was thoroughly enjoying his advantage over Naruto.

Naruto decided it would be in his best interest to feign ignorance of the Kage bunshin and assume it was a regular bunshin. "What's the big deal. It's just a bunshin."

The man laughed. "Yea, sure kid. Well let's continue." The man and his three copies attacked.

_Please please please please oh god just let this work one time. I know I don't have the control for it but please please please let luck be on my side._ Naruto prayed.

All at once, the three kage bunshin struck Naruto will full attacks. Naruto was knocked far back. As he flew, the ninja started saying something.

"Not quite like a bunshin, is it? These can hurt." He said smugly. All of a sudden the Naruto he had just hit turned into a puff of white smoke. _What the hell?_

All of a sudden he saw Naruto drop from the sky and destroy all three kage bunshin. "I know. Big deal, so you can use Kage bunshin. I can too, it's not that hard." Secretly though, he was thanking god that he had that lucky as hell burst of control to create the clone without seals and jump into the air while the man was too smug to notice.

The man looked a little more than unnerved. _So the boy knows a jounin level kinjutsu. This should get interesting._ "Okay, I'll admit you just took me by surprised brat, but just because you did it once doesn't mean you'll be able to do it again. Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Five copies of the man were made.

_Shit. He's right, with this damn seal I'll never be able to do that again. _Naruto was royally screwed if he couldn't come up with something soon.

Two of the copies charged at him with kunai. _Oh well, it looks like I'll have to out maneuver them._ He dashed at them weaponless. He did a flying kick into the first one, planting it right into the copy's face. It disappeared. The other one stabbed at him. Naruto grabbed the kunai and shoved it back into the copy, causing it to disappear. Naruto turned around to look at his remaining opponents. _Oh shit!_ He jumped left, hitting the ground and rolling onto his feet. A large fireball scorched the ground where he was previously. He looked to where it had come from and saw the three copies and the original all perched in trees surrounding him, all forming seals. Four more fireballs were fired at him. Calmly and smoothly, Naruto dodged them all. More and more fireballs were being shot and Naruto was starting to have trouble dodging them. Then he noticed a pause in the stream of them from one angle. He took this opportunity to jump and take out one clone.

He lashed out at the clone, hoping to punch the ever loving crap out of it. No luck. A fireball caught him square in the back. Naruto hit the ground hard. He was okay, but definitely in worse condition than he had been a moment previous. The clone however was not so lucky. The part of the fireball that missed Naruto had completely destroyed the clone.

_Great, only three to deal with now. The fireballs are getting smaller and smaller and don't seem to be as powerful. He must be running out of chakra._ After a few more minutes of dodging fire, and a few more times of Naruto being grazed by a flame or two, all of the men in the trees poofed out of existence. _WHAT! WHEN DID HE MAKE ANOTHER CLONE! WHERE'S THE REAL ONE!_

Naruto's first question was never answered, but his second was when the ninja exploded out of the ground and kicked Naruto _hard_ across the back. He grabbed Naruto's neck and pinned his arms back. "It looks like you're slowing down demon." The man was right. Naruto was not in quite as good shape as he had been.

"SHUT UP!" Naruto yelled through the man's chokehold. "Trust me, if I didn't have this damn seal and I could use my chakra I would have killed you by now."

"Oh really. Well I'm glad you think so. I'm also glad you told me about your chakra, 'cause now I don't have to worry about you escaping this! Time to die, you demon!" Somehow, the man formed seals in his hands. "Doton: Dor-"

He was cut off from finishing his attack. In fact, he was cut off from life. He dropped Naruto and then fell over, neck cleanly snapped.

Naruto wondered what happened and immediately turned around. He realized what had happened. Itachi just killed the ninja, and most likely just saved Naruto's life.

Naruto stared up at Itachi and looked into his cold Sharingan. "An unfortunate misunderstanding! You killed your entire clan!"

"No I didn't. I only killed some of them. Now shut up and I'll explain once we're a bit further out." Itachi started running. Naruto followed, seeing there was no point in running away, as it was obvious he stood no chance against Itachi.

Once they had gotten a sufficient distance from the battleground, Itachi sat down at the base of a tree. Naruto stood in front of him staring at him. "So what then. Explain."

"Simple. I killed most of them, but with good reason, and I most certainly did not start it. All the people I killed deserved it and when I killed them it prevented them from doing what they needed. I was going to be set up anyway, so I decided to go ahead and kill them. Then I fled, knowing full well there was no way I could take on the whole village after me at once. That's all I'm going to tell you about it, too." Itachi said, as calmly as usual.

"Okay, so you're not a heartless, cold-blooded mass murderer, you're just a mass murderer." Naruto stared into him.

"Well, I like to think of what I did as protection instead of murder. By taking the 'bad people' out, I protected all of Konoha. But if you want to say it your way, then yes I'm a mass murderer."

"So tell me, why did you take me?" Naruto asked

"First off, I've told you half of this before. Even though I was very young when it happened, because I became ANBU captain I was let know about the Kyubi. I know you're not it and I don't hate you for having it. So basically you could say I felt sorry for you having to go back to the village that tried to kill you." Naruto looked a little dumbfounded. "Yeah, I know all about that Naruto, I mentioned it earlier. So basically I like you and don't want you to be weak, so I decided I'd help train you, and god knows after watching your fight with that ninja you need serious help."

Naruto glared at him. "What else?"

"Well I see you're very good at reading people. That and I already mentioned this earlier. Yeah, there are some personal reasons as well. Namely that you're a favorite of Sandaime and I'm going to use that fact to gain an audience with him and explain my actions, hoping that he'll let me back into the village. Anyway, why do you care so much? I haven't harmed you once, I've saved your life, and now I've even offered to train you. Is justifiably killing most of my clan really _that_ bad?" Itachi said this with half sarcasm, cracking a slight smile.

Naruto sighed and sat down. "I can't believe it."

"What?" Itachi asked.

"You just showed emotion."

_XXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_

* * *

A/N: Alright, expect an update A LOT sooner this time. As I said before, sorry everyone._

_Oh, and IM me ampedarchetype._

_Peace. _


	8. Chapter 8: Running with the Devil

_AN: Heh, this is totally a lot sooner! I don't have any particular reason for not updating. I quit watching the show and reading the manga because it kind of got boring. I got more into original fiction and it's fun, but I really just felt bad about leaving it unfinished (and was constantly reminded this existed through email alerts...). I read a summary of the new chapters of Naruto, and really didn't like it, so I'm pretending that I never read it! Therefore anything I write that conflicts with something that has come up in recent chapters...well...leave me alone about it._

_ Anyway, enjoy._

_Oh, and I can't upload documents, so I copied and exported a previous chapter and edited it to be the new chapter, but it resulted in formatting problems...so...yeah.  
_

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to state that I don't own Naruto? That's kind of obvious...**

* * *

_**Chapter Eight: Running with the Devil**_

"Alright Naruto," Itachi was beginning his criticisms "I finished my fight in a few seconds and then went to watch yours. The first thing I noticed is that your full speed is too fast for you. I saw you use it once, and when you punched him you looked as surprised as he did. We'll have to work on that. The next thing you did wrong was letting your enemy do his attack even when you know you can stop him. Never let your enemy attack if you can help it. The third and definitely biggest mistake you made, which would have gotten you killed had I not been there, is that you told your enemy your biggest weakness. Because he didn't have to fear any replacements or tricks, he didn't have to anticipate anything, and instead used an attack he could take time on.

Naruto pouted. While the other things weren't so obvious in the heat of battle, he knew full well the third was done out of sheer idiocy. _Stupid. I'm such an idiot! I know better than that!_ "Yes Itachi."

"But before you learn any more combat, there are two things we need to do." Naruto listened intently. "One is to get your control fixed. I only have an idea of how to do that, so it could take a while. The other is to work on your tracking skills."

"What do you mean 'tracking skills'?" Naruto had no idea what Itachi meant. He had never had an actual target or enemy other than Kakashi, and Kakashi was always in his sight.

"I mean that I expected you to realize that we were being followed. I sensed their chakra signatures a long time before they revealed themselves.

"Wow! That means that I'd be able to know where someone is without seeing or hearing them?"

"As long as they don't hide their chakra. The ninja's we fought weren't able to keep up with our speed without using chakra, and when they did they gave themselves away. Whenever you get control of yours back, always remember to mask your chakra whenever you go anywhere. Also, when you go back to Konoha, mask it and make it look a lot smaller and less powerful. It will attract less attention and make it seem like you're normal for a kid your age.

Naruto nodded. "So how are you going to teach me how to sense chakra?"

Itachi sighed. "Well, I'm not really sure this will work, but I'm hoping it does. This," he held up a small bag of food. "is your dinner for tonight. If you want it, you're going to have to find me by sensing my chakra." With that, Itachi disappeared.

_Oh no! I'm really hungry! What if he masks his chakra???_ Naruto was freaking out a little bit.

And then, as if on cue, Itachi reappeared. "Right, I won't be masking my chakra, so don't worry." And then he disappeared again. Naruto sighed. This was going to suck.

_XXXXXXXX _

Lucky for Naruto, you don't have to be able to use chakra to sense it. After missing 2 days of food, Naruto was finally finding Itachi easily. Each time, Itachi was farther and farther away, getting to the point where Naruto could now sense chakra for a very good distance out. Itachi decided that Naruto was good enough at this, and would only do it one more day

He was going to be really mean about it though.

"Okay Naruto. You've gotten exceptional at this, so this is the last time we'll do this." Naruto nodded, enjoying the praise. Also, he was enjoying the prospect of not having to seek out his dinner. "One catch to this one." Naruto sighed. There was always a catch. "If you don't get to me within one hour, I'm not giving you any food for the rest of the week. Consider this a big test." Itachi disappeared

Naruto concentrated. _Where is he. _Naruto closed his eyes and sensed out Itachi. _He's not behind me…not left or right…not in front of me…below!_ _He's below me! How the hell am I supposed to get down there! _

Sure enough, Itachi was a good thirty feet underground, directly below Naruto.

_This was a good idea. _Itachi thought to himself. _It'll teach him how to get food for himself. There's no way he can get to me without using chakra._ _Unless he digs. But I don't think he's got the heart to even try. Eh, I guess I'll just take a nap._ Being the patient teacher he is, Itachi dozed off.

Well, what Itachi thinks and what Naruto does is usually quite different. This time was no exception, because above the ground Naruto was busy using his hands and nails to dig into the hard earth.

_That asshole. He knows there's no way I can reach him without digging. What was this supposed to be, just a big pain in the ass for me?_ Naruto continued digging. _I mean seriously. Why else would he do this? Starving me for a week won't make me stronger. Hell, this is neither training me nor is it working on my chakra control problem. _

After about five minutes, Naruto stopped to take a break. _It doesn't seem like the bastard's even moved. Wait a minute…yeah._ Naruto's face grew calm and composed. _There's someone behind me. Somewhere in one of the trees. It feels a lot weaker than Itachi though._

Better judgment kept Naruto from turning around. _I'll see what's going on. If they don't do anything then I'll just leave them alone. At least now they lost the element of surprise. _

Naruto got up and started digging again. Feeling some slight changes in the chakra signature, he turned around, thinking he was going to get attacked.

_Whoa!_ Naruto didn't see anything but a quick streak, but he felt an enormous chakra spike. _The chakra that person put out…it was way more than Itachi! It was incredible!_

Itachi, too, felt the spike. It woke him from his sleep and he shot out of the ground.

"Naruto!" Itachi said. "What happened. Who's chakra was that?"

"I don't know." Naruto answered. "They were just in a tree over there, watching me or something, and as soon as I turned around their chakra spiked and then completely disappeared.

Itachi paused and concentrated to find the chakra. It felt like it was completely gone. "We're moving. I don't know what that was and I don't like it at all. Mask any chakra you have and come with me." He dashed off into the forest. Naruto followed.

After running at near-full speed for half an hour, Itachi stopped at another clearing. Moments later Naruto stopped next to him. "Alright, I didn't sense anyone following us so we should be good for now." Itachi threw his pack to Naruto. "What just happened made me feel like we're being scouted. When there's a scout, it usually means that there's a group behind it. That means bad news for us. Grab some kunai out of my pack and hide them on you. Be ready to fight at any second, okay?" Naruto nodded in assent and followed his instructions

An hour passed. The boys were still on edge. "Itachi?" Naruto said

"What?" Itachi replied from behind him

"Who's chakra do you think that was?

"My only guess would be a hunter-nin. I've never seen that kind of power spike from a scout before. Regardless of who it was, no one is here now." He walked over to Naruto and sat down. "I think it's been long enough. Let's eat." He pulled some fruit out of his pack and handed it to him. "Eat up. I'm going to teach you how to fight afterwards.

"Huh?" Naruto gulped down a piece of apple. "I know how to fight.

"No, you know how to spar. There's a difference." He tossed an apple core into the woods. "That's a problem a lot of new ninjas have. They get sparring experience from their instructors but don't ever get any real fighting experience. When you spar, the worst thing that will happen is you might get bruised up a bit. When you fight, you can get killed.

"I've been in fights too."

"And you lost both of them. I don't know why Orochimaru didn't kill you, but the only reason that hunter-nin didn't is because I got to him first." Itachi threw another apple core away. "Now, are you going to argue any more or will you shut up and listen to me.

"Sorry. I'll listen." He finished the fruit in his hand and stood up. "So does this mean we try to kill each other?"

Itachi stood up and took out a kunai. "Of course not. I'm not going to decide if you live or die." He smiled. "That's up to you.

_XXXXXXXXX_

Naruto collapsed with a kunai in his shoulder and blood all over him. Itachi dropped down and sat next to him with gasping breaths. "That" he said between breaths "was a good huff fight."

It had been 4 months since he had declared he would teach Naruto how to fight. 'Fighting' had been slow and pathetic at first. Though the point was to create realism in the battle, he couldn't bring himself to severely harm the kid. Of course, this only lasted until the day he found out that the kid had an absurd healing rate which apparently wasn't blocked by the seal. Then, the training really took off. He quickly showed Naruto that if you messed up while fighting, you get extreme pain. This spurred the Naruto's growth greatly

"Hey…" Naruto looked up at Itachi. "I almost got you. Any points for that?"

Itachi shook his head 'no'. In truth, he had been hit quite a few times, but to him the hits didn't matter. Only blood drawn counted. It took Naruto a month to draw blood the first time. He almost wished he hadn't though, because then Itachi started using the Sharingan. Naruto hadn't drawn blood since

Usually about once a week they would detect the unknown chakra spying on them. After the third time it happened Itachi decided there was nothing he could do about it and, until it made its move, he would just ignore it.

"Get up and go wash yourself off." Itachi yanked the knife out of Naruto. He yelped in pain

"That hurts!" He pushed himself up. "I don't heal immediately you know."

"Shut up." He grabbed his pack. "Wash up, we're going into town.

Naruto nodded.

_XXXXXXXXXX_

It turned out the clearing Itachi had found to live in was only a few miles from a medium-sized town complete with shops and restaurants. Anytime they needed something they couldn't get in the forest, the boys just ran into town

Naruto waited for Itachi at the town gates. The only thing he had with him was his cloak. Itachi's rule about going in town was that they had to pretend to be normal kids, not ninja.

Itachi arrived well past sundown. "Sorry," he said "I felt the chakra again and tried to follow it." He shook his head. "No luck.

Naruto shrugged and they walked into the busy town. The night life in the area was impressive. The main businesses in this part of town were gambling halls and restaurants, so people were crawling around everywhere. The boys never had any money to get anything, but it wasn't hard for two kids to con some cash from a kind adult

"That place look good?" Naruto pointed to a large lounge.

Itachi nodded and walked in. The place was packed with no tables empty. "Let's try somewhere else." He turned to leave

"Hey kid!" He turned around. An old, weird looking white-haired man was gesturing to him. "I've got some free seats. Come join me!

Itachi inspected the old coot. He was large, seemed jolly, and most importantly looked to be very, very drunk. _Perfect_. He motioned for Naruto to follow him as he walked to the old man's table

"There ya go!" The old man motioned. "Sit! What're two little kids like yourself doin' around town this late?

"Just getting food, sir." Itachi was very polite. He figured that since he was going to let the old man pick up his bill, he might as well be cordial to him.

"Ah yeah, food's good!" The old man laughed. "Hey waitress! Bring some food for my friends here!" The waitress came over and took their orders. Both boys ordered noodle dishes and turned their attention back to the old man. He took a sip from his cup and eyed the boys. "So what're your names, boys?

Itachi glanced over at Naruto and then back at the old man. "Izayoi Sato, sir. This is my friend…

"Hakurei Rin." Naruto grinned

"Oh! What unusual names." He took another drink. "Different names…" he studied them " and very different ages, so I'm curious what you're doing together. Orphans? Runaways? What?

"A bit of both." Itachi leaned back as the waitress set the food down in front of them. "You haven't told us anything about you, sir." He pointed at the odd forehead protector on the man's head. "You're a ninja, but I don't recognize the symbol. Where are you from and what brings you here, sir?" He carefully slurped some noodles. The realization that the man was a ninja was less than settling. Even more upsetting was the fact that Itachi couldn't sense his chakra

"Haha!" He took the forehead protector off, some of his stark white hair falling down in its place. "People always stare when they see it. It's my own mark, not a town's. I'm from a village called Konoha. It's quite a ways from here." He returned the protector to his head. "It's a beautiful place, but recently someone ruined the serenity there." He studied Itachi. "Ever heard of the Uchiha clan?

Itachi acted very childish, slurping some noodles up messily. "Can't say I have.

"Ah, that's surprising. You look a lot like one of them." Itachi twitched. "Anyway, a couple months ago, one of the strongest Uchiha snapped and killed virtually the whole clan.

Itachi gasped. "That's terrible! How could someone do that!

"He killed _everyone_?" Naruto spoke up. "I don't even know my family! I would kill to have a family and this bastard had one and killed them!

Itachi looked over at him. _That's not even fair, brat_

The old man stared at Itachi. "Yeah, you know it's funny, you look _exactly_ like him. The only difference is that his name is Itachi and yours is Sato, so of course you're not him.

Itachi smiled at the man. "Of course not.

The old man cracked his neck. "That's not the reason I'm here though." Itachi lifted an eyebrow. "Of course it's a terrible thing that happened, but I don't care about it that much. My mission doesn't have anything to do with Itachi. I'm trying to help the boy he kidnapped." His eyes wandered onto Naruto. "You know, it's striking how much you resemble that boy. Anyway, a friend of mine was escorting a very special young boy back to the village when they were attacked by a man decidedly worse than Itachi. This man, a venomous bastard and former teammate of mine, is called Orochimaru. He easily beat them and placed a seal on the boy, blocking much of his chakra flow. Sandaime Hokage, the chief of Konoha, requested that I unseal the boy and bring him back to Konoha."

Itachi and Naruto glanced at each other. It was obvious to both of them the man knew who they were. Itachi stood up and motioned for Naruto to do the same. "Well I hope you find him then. Sorry, but it's getting a bit late. If you don't mind, we'll be leaving now.

The man put his cup down. "That's fine. I'll handle the bill, Sato-san. Take care." He waved them off

The boys walked out of the restaurant and then made a mad dash to camp.

"This is the worst thing that could have happened." Itachi grumbled as he ran.

"He said he's not after you though." Naruto said, keeping pace. "I don't see what the big deal is.

"You forget that you're my only bargaining chip to get to see Sandaime… If he takes you there's no chance in hell I'll ever be able to come back to the village."

"He said he could unseal me." Naruto looked at him. "Do you really think he can?

"If there's anyone that can do it, it's him." Itachi kicked a branch as he ran. "Shit this is bad!

"Why? Who is he?

"Jiraiya." Naruto looked at him in confusion. "He's one of the legendary Sannin, just like Orochimaru. The only chance we have is to run.

Naruto patted his stomach. "I could run faster if I was unsealed.

"If you even think about turning yourself over to him, I'll hold you hostage." They both stopped in the clearing. "It's extremely important that I get to speak with Sandaime.

"Oh, is that so?

Itachi twitched at the sound of the voice and looked to the right. Standing next to him with an unconscious Naruto over his shoulder was Jiraiya. _Shit! _

"Now," the Sannin cracked his neck. "I hope you're not stupid enough to attack me.

Itachi un-tensed and backed a few steps away.

"Smart. Now I heard you say you had something to say to Sandaime." Itachi nodded carefully. "It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the rumor that Orochimaru persuaded a large portion of the Uchiha clan to help him gain access to Konoha, would it?" Itachi's eyes went wide with shock. "You're recent slaughter and flight doesn't suggest that you were working for him, so I'm guessing you were trying to prevent something?

"Yes sir." Were the only words Itachi could speak.

Jiraiya stared at him. "If that's the truth, I'll be in touch." He waved to Itachi, picked up Naruto's pack and disappeared.

Itachi dropped off his feet and sat down. "I'm screwed if you don't." He looked over to a bundle of white cloth still lying in the middle of the clearing. _Naruto's going to be pissed when he finds out his cloak is gone_, he chuckled.

_XXXXXXXX_

Naruto woke up in the Hokage's office with his pack on his chest and Orochimaru's seal completely gone. _Oh man, what happened._ He looked around at the room. _I'm in this office, which means…I'm back in Konoha! Shit! Where's Itachi!_ He ran to the door and threw it open. An old man stood in the way.

"Ah, so you're up." The man gently pushed Naruto back into the room and shut the door. "It's good to have you back, Naruto.

"Ojisan!" he ran up and hugged the Hokage. "Ojisan! Itachi needs to talk to you!

"Calm down." Sarutobi patted Naruto on the head. "Jiraiya told me already. I'll deal with Itachi later." He smiled. "I was quite surprised to hear that you were getting along with him so well. I was worried you were being held hostage.

Naruto shook his head, the blonde mess shaking as he did. "He was really helpful and took good care of me." _…mostly… _

"That's good." He walked over and sat at the desk. "Regardless, I couldn't leave you with him; it was too much of a risk. I had to make sure you came back, so I sent Jiraiya to bring you back.

"Okay, so when can I leave." He interrupted. He hated the village and wanted to get out of it as quickly as possible

"I'd say in about five years or so, after you've graduated the academy and joined a genin team.

Naruto just glared at him. No words came to his mind that could express his feelings

Well, some did, but he wasn't about to say them to the Hokage.

* * *

_AN: See, that wasn't so bad. Not sure when I'll have the next chapter up, so just add me to your alert list._

_Ah, and reviews are appreciated, though if you have any significant ideas I'd appreciate it if you IM'd me at AmpedArchetype on AIM._


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